Through a Glass, Darkly
by Anpwhotep
Summary: Prince Frederick I of Laputa gets drawn into a dreamland where he meets PrincessNeoQueen Serenity and her Guardians, who were also drawn into the same dreamland. None of them know quite why they are there, but they have to work together to return home.
1. Chapter 1: Arrival

Fred MacManus groaned and rubbed his temples, hoping the headache would fade. The last he remembered, he had been snuggling in bed with Miriam, his wife. Now, however, he found himself laying in grass, with the sun beating down on him at an angle that indicated it was nearly noon. He darkened his Ravenfield and slowly opened his eyes, then immediately closed them as the light, even through the filtering of his Ravenfield, pierced his brain like a white-hot dagger.

"_Edgar?_" he thought. "_What the hell is going on, and why do I have a migraine?_"

"_I have no idea, Dad,_" Edgar's response came instantly. "_We were in bed a moment ago, then we were here, but the transition didn't give me enough data to make any conclusions from._"

"_My head feels like it used to when I had an organic body,_" Fred thought, while groaning softly. "_What do my vitals show?_"

"_Nothing out of the ordinary. I suspect that your headache may be because we're not in our universe. We're not even close enough for me to contact the network._"

"_But we're close enough for the environment to be like home, right?_"

"_To the limits of my ability to sense, yes._" Edgar's thought was almost apologetic. "_We need to find somewhere to get more information if I'm going to give you more than that. I'm working on the local radio bands to see what I can pick up._"

"O-namae wa nan desu ka?" an angry feminine voice demanded.

"Oh, frak," Fred groaned. "Are we in Japan?"

"_Not as far as I can tell,_" Edgar answered. "_The local radio and TV bands are all in English._"

"_Might as well start translating, then._"

"My name is Fred MacManus," Fred said softly, opening his eyes again and bracing himself for the pain he was sure would follow. When it didn't, he looked around for the woman who had addressed him.

Standing about twenty feet away was a group of women, all in their early twenties, wearing costumes he instantly recognized. He groaned and shook his head slowly, then pushed himself to a sitting position.

"I said, what is your name?" Sailor Mars demanded again.

"And I said, my name is Fred MacManus," Fred shot back. "Give it a rest, Rei. I'm not in the mood, and I'm not going to threaten your princess. Edgar, is this a dreamland?"

"_Not as far as I can tell._" Edgar paused, then added, "_If it is, it's one with laws that match the real world._"

"Joy," Fred grumbled. He pushed himself to his feet and watched as the senshi argued among themselves. "Ladies, I don't know how I got here, and it looks like you don't know how you got here, either. So what say we work together to try and figure out how to get back to our own worlds?"

"How do you know my name?" Sailor Mars demanded.

"In my world, all of you are fictional characters." Fred shrugged and reduced the power to his Ravenfield so they could see him more easily. "Amichan, would you be so kind as to scan me, so you can reassure everyone else?"

Sailor Mercury blushed, then nodded and snapped her visor into place. After a moment, she brought out her computer and began tapping on it. Sailor Mars and Sailor Jupiter glared at Fred, their postures clearly indicating their readiness to pound him into paste if he so much as looked funny at Sailor Moon.

Fred, meanwhile, only had eyes for Sailor Mercury. She was even more beautiful than he'd imagined, and he blushed as he realized that, if she were in his world, Miriam's teasing about his fondness for her might have some basis in fact.

"Uh-oh," Sailor Venus grinned and whispered to Sailor Mercury. "Looks like someone's in love."

"Don't be ridiculous," Sailor Mercury shot back distractedly, her attention entirely on her visor and computer. "He's right. We're not in our own world. Whatever happened when we killed that youma, it threw us out of our world and into this one."

"We're not in our own world?" Sailor Moon asked. "What about Mamo-chan? Why isn't he with us?"

"He must have been outside the area of effect," Sailor Mercury said. She closed her computer and pocketed it, then studied Fred thoughtfully. "You don't belong here, either. How did you get here?"

"I wish I knew," Fred said. "I was in bed a few minutes ago, and when I woke up, I was here."

"Dad," Edgar said out loud, "we have a problem."

"Tell me something I don't know," Fred groused.

"Who's that?" Sailor Mars demanded. "Show yourself!"

"That's Edgar," Fred said. "He's a part of my body."

"That's impossible!" Sailor Jupiter yelled.

"He's telling the truth," Sailor Mercury said. "My scan shows that MacManus-san is almost entirely cybernetic, and there are two living beings in his body."

"Cybernetic?" Sailor Moon asked. "What do you mean?"

"What she means," Fred said, "is that my body is artificial. All that's left of the original me is my brain and a couple other minor organs. Edgar is my systems control computer. He's what makes it possible for me to control my body as easily as I do."

"Is Edgar the reason that black field around you is able to conceal parts of your body, even after you lightened it?" Sailor Mercury asked, then blushed as deeply as Fred felt himself blushing at the question.

"Uh, yeah," Fred said, looking down and realizing he was still as naked as he had been in bed. "Thanks, Edgar."

"I didn't think you'd want to be completely exposed to the ladies," Edgar teased.

Sailor Venus laughed and elbowed Sailor Mercury gently. Sailor Moon's lip began to quiver, then she broke into tears.

"We're lost!" Sailor Moon wailed. "How are we going to get home?"

"I'm sure that, between Amichan and Edgar, we'll be able to figure out some way out of this," Fred said. He saw Sailor Mercury glance at him, then blush again, and sighed softly. "I'm sorry, Mizunosan. I . . . I'm being far too familiar."

"It's . . . all right," Sailor Mercury said softly. "I just . . . ."

"Someone's in lo-ove," Sailor Venus sing-songed, bringing a squeak from Sailor Mercury.

Sailor Jupiter looked between Fred and Sailor Mercury, then let out a soft growl of frustration.

"Dad," Edgar cut in, "I _really_ think you need to know this."

"All right," Fred sighed. "What is it?"

"We're in a world where Fred MacManus is the planetary emperor."

"The what?!" Fred demanded, followed a moment later by Sailor Mars.

"This world's version of you seems to have conquered the planet." Edgar said. "Listen."

Edgar switched on a radio broadcast.

"In Vietnam today, the Emperor destroyed what is believed to be the last of the Communist partisans left from the old Vietnamese government, thus destroying the last resistance to the global government.

"In a statement from the Imperial government, the Empress said, 'With the last of the resistance eliminated, we can now turn our attention to making the world a better place for all its people. We look forward to showing the world that our generosity is as great as our determination. We can now enter a true Golden Age for all mankind.'

In New York City, the Knight of Flame and the Black Dragon led Imperial Guards in putting down a riot . . . ."

Fred sat down, hard, as Edgar switched off the radio broadcast.

"Oh . . . my . . . God," Fred groaned. "What went wrong? How could . . . ?"

"MacManus-san?" Sailor Mercury said gently, as she walked to him and placed a hand on his shoulder. "What can we do?"

"I don't know, Amichan," Fred answered absently. He looked up and was struck again by how beautiful she was. There was no way he was going to let her--or any of them, for that matter--endure what life could be under an empire with control of his technology. "But we're going to figure out something. I will not let you suffer what this world must be suffering."

"MacManus-san?" Sailor Mercury asked, while blushing deeply. "Why do you call me Amichan?"

"I, uh," Fred blushed as he stammered out his answer, "well, uh . . . ." He hung his head and whispered, "Aino-san is right. I, uh, I've been in love with you since the first time I saw you on TV."

Fred closed his eyes, waiting for the slap he was certain would come. When he felt, instead, a hand gently touch his face and turn his head, he whispered, "I'm sorry. I have no right . . . ."

"MacManus-san?" Sailor Mercury asked gently. "Would you love a real woman, the way you love a TV character?"

"I . . . I do," Fred said softly. "And . . . she's told me that if you were a real person, she'd ask you to marry us, if I weren't brave enough to do it myself."

"She'd ask me?" Sailor Mercury said, surprised. She knelt beside Fred and began to laugh. Fred opened his eyes, surprised, and looked at her, saw tears running down her cheeks, and reached out to embrace her. Sailor Mercury leaned into his embrace, still laughing.

"_Edgar? Is she ok?_"

"_I'm not sure, Dad. She sounds almost hysterical, but I'm getting a sensation of happiness from her, too. It's kind of confusing._"

Sailor Moon brushed past Mars and Jupiter and knelt beside Sailor Mercury, sparing a glance of concern for Fred. He looked back at her and nodded at Mercury, but when he tried to gently push Mercury into Moon's arms, she clutched him and refused to let go.

"Amichan," Fred whispered gently, "Usagi's here."

"Don't want Usagi," Sailor Mercury whispered. "Want you."

"Amichan," Sailor Moon said gently. "Are you ok?"

"He loves me," Sailor Mercury said, in a tone of surprise and wonder. "He doesn't even know me, but he loves me. And . . . and his wife approves."

"His _wife_?!" Sailor Moon blurted in shock. "What are you talking about?"

"In my world," Fred said with a sigh, "I'm married. Miriam, my wife, is a fighter jock. She's responsible for training all the fighter pilots in Laputa." He smiled lovingly at Sailor Mercury as he added, "And she has told me . . . how many times now, Edgar?"

"At last count, forty-two times, Dad." Edgar answered with an amused snort.

"Forty-two times," Fred said, "that if Ami were a real woman, and I were ever to meet her, that I'd _better_ ask her to marry me, and if I didn't have the ba-courage to do it myself, _she'd_ ask her."

"Don't you see?" Sailor Mercury asked Sailor Moon. "You have Mamoru, Rei and Mako have each other, and Minako has . . . well, every guy she meets, it seems. But MacManus-san is the first man to ever love _me_. Not my test scores, not my degrees, but _me_."

"But you don't even know me," Fred said softly. "For all you know, I could be as bad as the Emperor."

"You're not," Sailor Mercury said, fixing Fred with an implacable look. "I saw how you reacted when you heard that radio broadcast. It was as if someone had stabbed you to the heart. That told me what I needed to know. You are a good man."

"And I'm not from your world," Fred said. "I should never have told you how I feel. I should never have put that kind of burden on you."

"It's not a burden!" Sailor Mercury insisted. "Even if we're not from the same world, we're here now. And when we find a way back to our own worlds, I will always know that someone loves me, no matter how far away he is. And maybe I'll be able to find a way to your world, a way we can be together, even if it's for a little while."

Fred reached out and gently touched Sailor Mercury's cheek. She pressed against his hand, then leaned forward and kissed him, surprising him with her passion. It felt as if she had been saving her whole life for this one kiss. Without thinking, he wrapped his arms around her and held her close, returning the kiss with equal passion, his whole world shrunk to the woman in his arms.

"Dad, we're about to have company." Edgar's voice cut through the kiss, snapping everyone to attention.

Mars and Jupiter leapt to flank Sailor Moon, while Fred and Sailor Mercury scrambled to their feet. Sailor Venus scrambled into a nearby tree and scanned the distance.

The sound arrived first--a sound like turbines from the east. Fred zoomed in on a glint of light and saw a vehicle that looked vaguely like a rotorless Skycrane with a pair of large jets on the ends of shoulder-mounted wings and another pair of jets where the tail rotor should have been. Its cargo area was occupied by something about the size of a boxcar, with weapons mounts on the sides.

"Shit. We've got an APC incoming!" Fred yelled. "Everyone hide!"

The senshi stared at Fred for a moment, then ran for the tree Sailor Venus was in. In a moment, they were in the branches, huddled against the trunk. Fred extended his arms to reach a high branch and pulled himself into another tree, close enough he could join the senshi if they had any trouble.

"_Edgar?_" Fred thought. "_Do we have radio traffic?_"

"_Nothing spectacular,_" Edgar thought back. "_They're apparently on a routine patrol. I've figured out where we are, Dad._"

"_I sense hesitation. Why?_"

"_We're in Madison._"

"Madison?!" Fred blurted. When the senshi glanced at his tree he waved them back into hiding and continued silently, "_This doesn't_ look _like Madison. Are we in the Arboretum?_"

"_Exactly. We're in the section south of the Beltline._"

The APC flew overhead, and Fred nearly lost his grip on the tree as he stared at the emblem blazoned on its belly. While the APC was painted white, in the center of its troop module was a black jackal's head, surrounded by an emerald green ouroboros.

"_Edgar?_"

"_Yes, Dad._ She _is the Empress._"

"_Shit. No wonder he's so fucked up._"

"_Can you hack into the senshi communicators?_"

"_I can try. If they operate on the same frequency as Mercury's computer, I should be able to._"

"_Do it._"

"_OK, Dad. Give me a moment . . . There. I'm in._"

"_Listen, everybody. Stay hidden until they're out of sight. Amichan, use your visor to track it and let everyone else know when it's safe._"

"_How did you . . . ?_" Sailor Mars demanded.

"_Edgar did it._" Fred sighed and pinched his eyes together. Rei was going to be an ongoing headache, and there was nothing he could do about it. "_Look, we're in this together, whether you like it or not, Rei. I'm hoping we'll be able to use my knowledge of my own world to get us out of it, but it won't work if you're constantly fighting me._"

"_You know too much about us,_" Sailor Mars shot back.

"_Amichan, would you get your computer out, please? Edgar, do you have episode 200 available?_"

"_Searching . . . Getting it out of long-term storage now._"

"_Squirt it over to Ami, would you?_" Fred sighed softly, relieved, as he watched the APC continue on its path away from them. "_Amichan, Edgar's sending you the last episode of the TV show you all were in. Would you play it so everyone can see it?_"

"_Of course,_" Sailor Mercury said. "_It's coming through now . . . got it._"

Fred kept his focus on the APC, shifting so he could keep it in sight through the tree branches, as it flew away.

"We're _anime_ characters?" Sailor Venus squealed excitedly. "That's so _cool_! It's just like when I was Sailor V!"

"_Now you see why I knew I could trust you as soon as I saw you,_" Fred said. "_I would trust any of you with my life, and with the life of anyone I love. Yes, Rei, even you._"

"_How did they know?_" Sailor Moon whispered. "_That's just as I remember it._"

"_I don't know how Naoko-sama knew,_" Fred said, "_although some philosophers in my world spend a lot of time arguing over whether authors create the universes they write about, or whether they are merely transcribing what they see in universes that already exist. Either way, given what I know about you all, from both the anime and the manga, the only senshi I wouldn't trust on sight are Michiru and Haruka._"

"_Well, he has good sense there,_" Sailor Mars grumbled. "_All right. Now what do we do?_"

"_They're far enough away,_" Sailor Mercury said. "_We can either stay up here and watch the rest of this, or we can get back down on the ground and watch this later._"

Fred dropped to the ground and walked over to join the senshi as they swung out of their tree.

"Um, MacManus-san?" Sailor Moon said. "We need to do something about getting you some clothes."

"Oh. Um, right." Fred blushed, then closed his eyes and concentrated. As the senshi watched, his skin shifted, changing color and texture, until he was standing in front of them in moccasins, blue jeans, and a black t-shirt that said, under a skull and crossed cutlasses, "I am the Dread Pirate Roberts #696969. Ask about franchise opportunities in your area."

Sailor Mercury began giggling, while the others looked at her as if she'd lost her mind. After a few moments, her giggles changed to open laughter, and she dehenshined, still laughing. She glanced at Fred and blushed deeply, but her laughter continued.

"_Um, Dad?_" Edgar said uncertainly. "_I can feel her almost as easily as I can feel you, and I'd_ swear _she's wondering if your t-shirt is an invitation._"

Fred blinked and looked down at himself in confusion, then blushed deeply as he realized what Edgar _had_ to be talking about.

"It is if _she_ wants it to be," Fred murmured absently, "but _only_ if she wants it to be." He raised his voice, oblivious to Ami's shocked stare in response to his murmur, and said, "Amichan has the right idea. You'll blend in better if you look like tourists, and we need to find out more about this world if we're going to find a way home."

Sailor Moon dehenshined first, followed by the others, with Sailor Mars the last to surrender her senshi form. Fred nodded slowly, thankful that they were all in clothing that wouldn't stand out, at least in the America of his world. He just hoped this world wouldn't be too far different in its fashion trends.

"We're going to need a base of operations," Rei said. "I don't think any of us want to risk living out here in the woods."

"You're right," Ami said. "For that, we need money."

"Leave that to me," Fred said. "When money is nothing but notations in a spreadsheet, all you need to do is edit the spreadsheet. Edgar, where's the nearest bank we can hack into?"

"Nakoma Plaza," Edgar said. "You can take your pick of three."

"We're going to rob a bank?" Minako asked. "But, we're the good guys!"

"We're not going to rob it," Fred said. "We're going to do the exact same thing the government does, on a much smaller scale."

"Oh, that's different," Minako said. "That's O--what?"

"Do you know how governments create money? Or why we have inflation?"

"Uh . . . no?"

"They do exactly what Edgar and I are going to do," Fred said. "They make a bookkeeping entry in their account books that says they have so much money. Then they order enough bills or coins created to cover that entry. At least, that's the way they used to do it. Now, in America, they just make the bookkeeping entry. Since the National ID card functions as a debit card, most people don't even know what cash looks like any more."

"But," Usagi jumped in, "you can't just create something from nothing!"

"Exactly," Fred said. "That's why we have inflation. Even though the government can decree that the money supply is going to expand, it can't create value to support that expanded money supply. It's just like the con artist who sells 100 percent of the same object to five different people. If they all try to collect the object, they discover they each really only own twenty percent of it."

"You mean, they only own one fifth of it?" Minako asked. Ami rubbed her forehead, while Rei let out a soft growl of annoyance.

"Yes, Minako," Ami said. "He meant one fifth."

"Um," Usagi asked, "why would they do that?"

"Because," Fred answered, "when the government creates the money, that means it can spend the money before it dilutes the value of the rest of the money in the economy. So if the government adds a million dollars to the economy, it can spend that million dollars before anyone else even knows it's there, so it's spending the money at the old value, instead of at the diluted value. What we call inflation is really just the diluted value of the money, which is what the rest of us who aren't the government get for our money."

"But," Usagi protested, "that means the government is _dishonest_!"

Everyone stared at Usagi, too stunned to respond, until Rei snapped out, "No kidding, dumpling-brain! It took you _this long_ to figure it out?"

"Waaaaah!" Usagi wailed, "Rei, you're so mean to me!"

Edgar shunted Rei and Usagi's voices to a null file, after running them through a filter set to trip on any indications of trouble. Fred sighed with relief, offered Ami his arm, and, when she took it, started walking westward. After a moment, Makoto and Minako followed. After about ten steps, Minako and Makoto ran back to grab Usagi and Rei by their arms and pull them along, incidentally breaking up their fight, which had degenerated to the two sticking their tongues out at each other.

"Fred-san?" Ami asked quietly. "You said that in your world's America, there is a National ID, ne? Do you think this world may have the same thing?"

"Damn," Fred swore. "Edgar?"

"It does, Dad. I'm trying to find a paperhanger right now."

"How about Sven?" Fred suggested. "If anyone knows where to find one, he would."

"So would Ambrosius," Edgar pointed out. "And I've already found his bar. It's right where it is in our world."

"Which leaves the problem of getting there," Fred groaned. He didn't really want to deal with Ambrosius. Sven, as a dragon should be, was an honest businessman. Ambrosius was a meddling manipulator, who would demand some kind of favor for his services, rather than an honest price.

"How clear is your image of this bar?" Ami asked.

"Uh-uh," Fred said firmly. "No. I don't want to be in the middle of the brawl that would break out if you try that."

"Brawl?"

"Yeah. The brawl that Makoto and Rei would start when all of you arrive naked." Fred glanced sideways at Ami and blushed, in unison with her. He plowed on, hoping that the explanation would distract him from the image of a nude Ami. "Ambrosius' apprentices use the bar to practice their wards. His senior apprentice, the one the radio called the Knight of Flame, earned her journeyman status by creating a ward that allowed teleportation into the bar, but incinerated any non-living material that passed through the ward. _Any_ non-living material. Ares had to replace his sword and armor."

"You mean," Ami gasped in shock, "a journeyman mage was able to create a ward that could affect a god?"

"Indeed," Fred said, nodding. "Of course, it helps that she's half ifrit, so has a natural affinity for fire."

"But still, a god?"

"Yup. He was damned unhappy about it, too." Fred laughed and added, "Ambrosius suggested that next time, he might want to use the door."

Ami blinked, then snorted, which turned into a giggle, which changed into a laugh.

"What's so funny?" Usagi asked as she ran to flank Ami's free side. "You sound like you just heard a good joke."

"Fred-san just told me about a bartender who told Ares he should come in through the door," Ami said between bouts of laughter. "_After_ his apprentice had created a ward for her journeyman project that incinerated Ares' clothes and weapons."

"He told _Ares_?" Usagi blurted, shocked. "Who did he think he was, _Ambrosius_?"

"Wait," Fred said, stopping and turning to face Usagi. "You _know_ Ambrosius?"

"Not really," Usagi answered, blushing and shifting uneasily from one foot to the other. "But he was known as one of the greatest wizards in Atlantis."

"You didn't happen to have any way to contact him in an emergency, did you?"

"We could try the phone, Dad," Edgar suggested with a snicker.

Fred hit himself in the forehead with the heel of his hand. "Of course. Give it a try." He glanced around. They were still in the Arboretum, which made the idea that had just come to mind plausible. "Usagi, we need Princess Serenity to talk to Ambrosius. Even if he won't help Fred MacManus, he _should_ help you, if he remembers your kingdom as well as you remember him."

"It can't hurt to try," Usagi said thoughtfully, then closed her eyes and brought her hands up to frame her brooch.

"_Hey, Fred_," Sally's voice came over Edgar's link. "_What's up?_"

"What the?" Fred blurted, while darkening his Ravenfield to shield his eyes from the brightness of Usagi's transformation. "Sally? What are you--? Never mind. Is Ambrosius handy?"

"_Sure_," Sally said. "_But I never thought you'd be looking for_ him. _Hold on a sec and I'll get him._"

"Who's Sally?" Ami asked.

"She's the one the radio called the Knight of Fire."

"You mean, the one who created that ward you told me about?"

"Yeah. I don't get it. If she's out playing enforcer for the Emperor, what's she doing in the bar?"

"_Hello, Fred_," Ambrosius said via Edgar. "_Sally said you wanted to speak with me._"

"I do. So does Princess Serenity."

"_Princess Serenity?_" Ambrosius sounded as if Fred had just hit him between the eyes. "_I didn't notice any transits from that universe. Where are you?_"

"In the UW Arboretum. We need to get to your bar, without any police noticing us."

"_I should be able to help. Just a moment while I find you...Fred, this could be a problem. I don't generally enter other people's dreamspaces without taking precautions that it sounds as if you haven't taken._"

"Dreamspaces? Are you telling me I'm in a dreamland?"

"_That's exactly what I'm telling you. Are you sure that the person you're talking about really_ is _Princess Serenity?_"

"If she's not, she's a better copy than I could imagine." Fred looked at Serenity as he answered, then glanced at Ami. _Damn. If this is a dream, is Ami not real, too?_ "Hold on a moment, I need to check something." Fred bit his lip, then asked Ami, "Amichan, do you have any record of something that could help clear this up? Say, an agreement or something that dates back to the Silver Millennium?"

"Let me check," Ami said, pulling out her computer. She typed furiously on it, then smiled and showed Fred the display. "This should do it."

"Thanks, love," Fred said absently as he studied the screen. Ami blushed deeply, shivered, and leaned against Fred with a quiet smile. "OK. Ambrosius, do you remember the agreement you made with Endymion the Fourth regarding the assistance you would give in case of danger to his family? Would you consider that agreement to apply also to the betrothed of his...hold a sec...Ami, how does this Endymion relate to Mamoru?"

Ami took the computer back and typed on it a moment, then nodded. "Mamoru is Endymion the Twenty-Third."

Fred smiled lovingly at her and nodded, then said, "Would that agreement also apply to the betrothed of Endymion the Twenty-Third?"

"_It would if they were alive_," Ambrosius said, "_but they were killed when the Lunar Palace was destroyed by Beryl and her army._"

"They got better. Or, more specifically, they were sent forward in time by Queen Serenity to be reborn in this time. And Princess Serenity is with me now, along with her Guardians. Mercury just showed me the copy of the agreement that's filed on her computer."

"_All right_," Ambrosius sighed. "_I'm not coming into the dreamland, but I will send a 'not my problem' spell down this line to cover anyone who's standing within twenty feet of you when it activates. It will last for one hour, so if you want to get here before it expires, you're going to have to either fly anyone who's with you here, or give Serenity and her guardians a target for their teleport spell so they can bring you here._"

"That'll work just fine," Fred said with a nod. "I'll tell you when everyone is within the area of the spell." He glanced around and called out softly, "OK. Everyone get close to me. Ambrosius is going to send a spell that will make us effectively invisible. As soon as he does that, we have one hour to get to his bar."

Rei and Makoto moved closer to Serenity, while Minako grinned and poked Ami gently, whispering playfully, "I told you someone was in love." Ami blushed and leaned into Fred, then pouted at Minako.

Fred rolled his eyes and whispered to Ami, "Is she _always_ like this?"

"No," Ami whispered back. "Sometimes she's worse. Especially if she hasn't had a boyfriend recently."

"Hey!" Minako protested, while Serenity and Makoto giggled, and Rei grumbled under her breath.

"OK," Fred said. "We're all within the area you specified. Ready whenever you are."

"_Here it comes_," Ambrosius said. "_Remember, it runs out in sixty minutes._"

"We're on our way." Fred looked at the women. "Unless you can take the image of our destination from my mind, it's probably better if I fly us there. Any objections?"

"How can you carry us?" Serenity asked.

"The easiest way is to hold you in my arms," Fred said. Noticing Rei's sour look, he sighed. "Look, Rei, the only one of you who _might_ have to worry about me is Ami, but if you're really that worried about me doing something untoward, you can always suit up and flame-broil me after we get there, all right?"

"Just like that?" Rei asked, while studying Fred suspiciously.

"Just like that," Fred said. "I have neither the time nor the inclination to argue with you. All I want is to clear up whatever has all of us here, so we can go home." He paused as his gaze lingered on Ami, and murmured, "Well, maybe not all I _want_, but all that's reasonable to hope for."

"We'll figure something out," Ami said softly as she reached up to touch Fred's cheek with her fingertips. "How are you going to carry us?"

"The same way I made these clothes appear," Fred said. His hand covered Ami's for a moment, then he stepped back a stride. "My body, except for the areas that house my surviving organic parts, is made of Liquid MacManusite. Therefore, it can take almost any form. For instance..."

Fred sank to the ground as his body reformed, flattened, and grew seats. His head, positioned on a rail in front of the front seat, turned to look at the women. "All aboard, ladies!"

Ami scrambled into the front seat and began questioning Fred, firing off questions faster than he could respond. While the others watched uncertainly, Fred tried to field Ami's questions, until Ami suddenly turned and looked at the others. "Well, what are you waiting for? How is this any different than Phobos and Deimos, or Artemis, Luna, and Diana?"

"He's turned into a _machine!_" Rei hissed.

"Yes! He trusts us enough to change like this in front of us." Ami humphed and turned her attention back to Fred. "How long will it take us to get to the bar like this?"

"Without risking anyone getting blown out of their seats? About ten minutes," Fred answered, then added in a whisper, "Thank you, Ami. What you said means a lot to me."

"It's true," Ami whispered back, pretending not to notice as first Serenity, then Rei and Makoto, and finally Minako, took their seats. "You had to trust us, at least that we wouldn't freak out, in order to let us see you change like that. Even if I didn't have other reasons for believing in you, that demonstration of trust should have been enough for any of us. Even Rei."

"I don't know," Fred chuckled softly. "If what Naoko wrote is true, the fact that I'm male is enough for Rei to not trust me." He raised his voice. "All right, everyone, we're about to take off. Just sit back and relax."

Fred's Ravenfield darkened, until the light within it was about as bright as a moonlit night. He rose, swaying slightly as he found his balance, until he was above the treetops. He rotated until he was facing toward the capitol dome, then began moving, accelerating slowly so his passengers wouldn't be too badly confused when they didn't feel themselves moving.

Ami's eyes opened wide and she looked around, then reached out toward the Ravenfield. "How do you do it?"

"The Ravenfield?" Fred asked, laughing. "It absorbs energy. All energy, from gravity to gamma rays."

"So," Ami mused, "since the field absorbs the gravitons, they can't interact with us..."

"And that's how we fly." Fred chuckled. "You should have seen how much trouble I had before I built Edgar. I had no hope of being able to manipulate the field fast enough, so the first time I turned it on, I slammed into the ceiling of the lab. I was stuck there until I turned it off."

"Oh dear," Ami gasped.

"Was that before, or after, you got this body?" Serenity asked.

"Somewhere in the middle, actually," Fred said. "It was after I died, but before I replaced my first cybernetic body with this one."

"After you died?" Ami and Serenity gasped, almost in stereo.

"Yup," Fred said. "I was on my way home from a convention in Denver when the DC-10 I was a passenger in suffered a catastrophic failure of its Number Two engine. The 'catastrophic failure' came in the form of a missile that had "Department of State Security" written on it. I died in the crash. Three days later, a morgue attendant found me trying to crawl out of the freezer. Luckily, since I had already been transferred to the VA, I was able to take part in a military experiment that gave me a cybernetic body. If not for that bit of luck, I would have been killed a second time, just to make sure."

"I get the feeling there's more to it than you're telling us," Serenity said.

"There is," Fred said. "Like, the feds shot down that plane because the Department of State Security precogs had visions that told them a passenger on the plane was going to be responsible for destroying the DSS. And, I didn't just come back to life. I was sent back. My Father offered to let me stay dead, but told me He needed me to help do His work in the living world. Well, I couldn't exactly disappoint Him, could I?"

"Your Father?" Ami asked

"Yup." Fred extruded a figure of a muscular human with the head of a black-furred hound.

"Anubis?" Ami asked.

"That's what the Greeks called Him," Fred said. "Given how different Egyptian is from Japanese, the closest the others are likely to get to saying His real name is Yi-ne-puu."

"So it's more like Ienpu?" Ami asked. "I thought he was the god of the dead?"

"That's as close as I've ever gotten to the right pronunciation," Fred laughed. "As for what He rules? Well, it's more like transitions, like the journey from life to death. He's also in charge of guardians in general, from bodyguards to anyone who puts his or her life on the line to protect the innocent. He's also associated with Wepwawet, who watches over pioneers of all kinds, from explorers to mad scientists." He raised his voice and announced, "We're over State Street now. Landing in just a few seconds. Everyone stick close. We don't want anyone to get lost."

Fred stopped over the middle of State Street, between Ella's Deli and a bagel shop he didn't remember seeing before, in the building across the street. He sank, adjusting his descent so he touched down in a small park beside the bagel shop. Once on the ground, he lowered the Ravenfield and announced, "We're here. Once everyone's off, I can lead you to the doorway."

"Thank you, Fred," Serenity said softly. "I don't know why we're in this world, but I'm glad whatever brought us here also brought us together."

Ami was the last to depart, and as she stood, she bent down and kissed Fred. "I'm glad, too." She squeaked with surprise as Fred shifted and transformed, wrapping his arms around her and returning the kiss with love.

"Can we _please_ get moving?" Rei grumbled. "We don't have time to waste like this."

Fred rolled his eyes and Ami bit her lip to hold in a snort of laughter. "Yes, Rei," Fred said. "Of course, Rei. Right this way."

With Rei, grumbling, taking the rear, Fred led the way to the front of the bagel shop. Once everyone was standing around the doorway, he reached for the hinge side of the door, closed his hand around empty air, then twisted and pulled. As he pulled, the empty air enclosed in his hand revealed itself to be a solid door knob, attached to a heavy wooden door. As the door swung open, it revealed a space on the other side that was as far from a bagel shop as any of them could imagine. Music, performed by an elven rock band, filled the air, and the scents of beer and hearty food tickled their nostrils.

Makoto stepped through first. Once inside, she stopped, looked around, then looked back at the others and breathed, awestruck, "This is amazing!

An elfin woman in buckskin walked to the door and looked through. She smiled and waved. "Hey, Fred. Ambrosius said you were coming with some friends. Are these your friends?"

"Hi Fawn," Fred said. "That's right. These are my friends. I think it's safe to say they've never seen a place like this before. Well, Mako? Want to tell the others it's safe to go in?"

"I don't know if I'd call it _safe_," Fawn laughed. "Sally's here, after all."

"Did someone call?" a woman with hair as white as Serenity's, in stretch jeans, swashbuckler boots, and a spandex t-shirt that read "69: Breakfast of Champions", asked as she appeared beside Fawn. She noticed the senshi and leered cheerfully at them. "Oooh! Hi! I'm Sally. If there's _anything_ you want, just ask for me."

"Sally," Fred groaned, pinching his eyes together. "Before you get too excited," he pointed at Serenity, "she is married," he pointed at Rei and Makoto, "those two are a couple," he slipped an arm around Ami, "she's with me," he nodded at Minako, "and as far as I know, she prefers men."

"You're no fun," Sally pouted. "Anyway, now that you're here, Merlin's upstairs waiting for you." She grinned and teased, "What's Miri going to say when she meets your girlfriend?"

"She's going to have to come here to meet her," Fred sighed. He squeezed Ami close for a moment, then raised his head and looked at Serenity. "We'd better get going. Hopefully, Ambrosius will have an idea of what to do."

"We'll find a way to make it work," Serenity said, reaching out to lay a hand on Fred's shoulder.

Fred nodded slowly. "If anyone other than you said that..."

Ami looked up at Fred and pouted He laughed softly and added, "Or you, of course, sweetheart."

Fred led the way through the bar, steered the group around a band of dwarves having an arm wrestling contest, paused while a centaur carried a blind, red-haired toddler across their path, and stopped to wait while an ogre carried two kegs of beer behind the bar. Once the ogre was out of the way, Fred knocked on the office door.

The door swung open and a voice called from the darkness beyond, "Come on! Come on! I haven't got all day, you know!"

"You say that every time someone comes to see you, Ambrosius," a cloaked woman said, surprising Fred when she appeared within arm's reach. "You'd think you didn't like visitors."

The darkness beyond the door dissipated, revealing a flight of stairs going up. The voice called down the stairs again, "Who is that? And where is Fred?"

"I swear, he just likes being difficult," the hooded woman grumbled, reaching up to rub her forehead. As she did, her hood fell back, revealing raven-black hair and a young appearance. She yelled up the stairs, "I'm one of the two people you need to consult. The only one who could be bothered to answer your questions. Now, we're coming up." She looked at Serenity and said, "Your Highness, if you would be so kind as to follow me?"

"Of course," Serenity said, and began up the stairs after the cloaked woman.

"Skuld?" Fred murmured uncertainly as he brought up the rear. "But why would she be here?"

"Because you need me," the cloaked woman called back down the stairs. "Because I have some of the answers you need."

--

Disclaimer: If you recognize it, and it's not from Knights in Tarnished Armor, it's not mine. Sailor Moon belongs to Takeuchi Naoko, and a few companies that published her work. Skuld belongs to Herself, and wouldn't likely recognize anyone else's claim on Her anyway.

Author's Note: Believe it or not, this story really did start out as a dream.


	2. Chapter 2: Bock and Photos

Fred groaned and pinched his eyes together. If what Skuld said was true, and he had no reason to believe she would lie, he and Ami were the beneficiaries of no less than four different wishes, all of which had the same object: finding Ami a man who loved her for herself, who would not be intimidated or overwhelmed by her intelligence. Skuld had taken advantage of the situation Fred was in to put him and Ami together, but had left it up to them to figure out what to do about it.

"...haven't figured that out yet," Skuld said. Fred played back what she'd said while he was distracted by his thoughts, and returned to listening, while gently squeezing Ami's hand. "Whoever created this dreamland did not sign his work, and went to an awful lot of trouble to make it seem real. Most dreamlands have differences from reality that make it easy to identify their creators. This one is so close to reality that a casual observer wouldn't be able to tell the difference."

"So, without knowing the creator, can we discover why this dreamland was created?" Ami asked.

"Since it came into existence around Fred," Skuld said, "it's clear it was created for him. The problem is, I can't figure out if it was intended as a trap, a lesson, a warning, or something more abstract. And Kami-Sama won't tell me anything about who created it or why. He just says that all of you are an important part of it, now that you're here, and that what happens here will affect both universes."

"So basically, we're flying blind?" Fred asked.

"That pretty much covers it," Skuld said. "I can't even see what the likely outcomes are, which means either Kami-Sama is personally involved in this, or he's given whoever is doing this the ability to block my vision."

"And if you can't do it, Rei can't, either."

"Except in more limited terms," Skuld said. She looked thoughtfully at Rei for a moment, then nodded. "You should still be able to sense immediate threats, but you won't be able to sense anything long-term."

"I couldn't do that without the Great Fire anyway, Skuld-Sama," Rei said, then cocked her head in confusion when Skuld chuckled.

"You underestimate yourself, Reichan," Skuld said. "If you were unable to See, you would never have been able to become a priestess. You're going to have to have more faith in yourself if you want to get through this successfully."

Rei glared at Fred. Fred sighed and bent down to whisper into Ami's ear.

"Ami, is she _always_ this hostile to men, or am I just lucky?"

"I don't know what's going on with her," Ami replied softly. "She doesn't have any use for men in general, but she's reacting to you like she blames you personally for our situation."

"So," Fred sighed, "regardless of what Skuld just said, as far as she's concerned, this is all my fault."

"That's the way it seems," Ami said. She looked at Rei and added, loudly enough to carry to everyone else in the room, "If Rei would just pay attention to what Skuld-sama has been telling us, maybe she would stop wasting her energy being angry at you and start focusing on the situation we're stuck in."

"I _am_ paying attention," Rei growled. "The situation is MacManus-san's fault. If--"

"And _yours_, Reichan," Skuld said firmly. "Your wish is one of those I granted, so if you want to blame someone for the five of you being here, you have as much _blame_ as anyone in this room. As does everyone else here _except_ Fred, Amichan, and Ambrosius. Amichan was, I am sure, as surprised by this as Fred. And remember, whoever created this dreamland did not do so with any warning to, or consultation with, Fred."

"But...!" Rei protested.

"But what?" Skuld asked. "Would you say it's _your_ fault when a youma shows up?"

"Of course not!" Rei said. "We don't _want_ youma!"

"And, does Fred _want_ to be here?" Ami asked.

"Well..." Rei grumbled. "He wants to be with you!"

"If I could be with Ami without being here, I'd be _ecstatic!_" Fred said. "But that's not what happened, so I'm dealing with what _did_ happen. Don't you think we'd all be better off if we did that?"

Rei grumbled under her breath. Serenity put a hand on Rei's shoulder and whispered to her.

"How much time has passed in either world?" Fred asked.

"In your world?" Ambrosius said, "None. In their world? I'll have to check. I haven't followed events in their world since the end of the Silver Millennium."

"Please do," Fred said. "Their world _needs_ them. And if any time passes in my world, please ask Miriam to come here. I don't know why, but I can't even contact the network."

"That's because," Skuld said, "all of you are here in your dream bodies, including Edgar. Without his physical body, he can not reach your network."

"Well," Edgar said, "that explains why I couldn't contact John when we arrived here. You'd think I'd be able to contact the local network, though."

"Assuming it exists," Fred said. "If the local version of me doesn't _have_ a network, you wouldn't be able to contact it."

"If that's the case," Edgar said, "we may have an advantage. As long as _we_ can communicate, we'll be able to coordinate our actions without them knowing."

"It makes sense," Ami said. "Until Edgar, nobody has been able to hack our communicators. We've always relied on them being secure."

"All right, then." Fred looked at Ambrosius. "Will we be able to use your bar to transfer the funds we need to operate here?"

"Yes," Ambrosius said. "Just talk to Sally or Carl."

"Good." Fred sat back and shifted a bit so Ami could lean against him more comfortably. "If any time passes in _their_ world, we need to get a message through to Endymion, so he knows they're all right."

"We can do that," Ambrosius said.

"Remember," Skuld said, "you're on your own here. Whatever is going on, I've done as much as I can. It's up to all of you to find out why you're here, and what you have to do about it."

"The first thing we have to do," Serenity said, "is find a place to live while we're here." Her stomach growled, and she blushed. "Well, maybe the second thing..."

"Either way, we'll need local ID," Ami said. "Edgar said they have a national ID here. We'll need ID cards for everyone, with enough money on them to pay for anything we need to buy."

"Talk to Carl about that," Ambrosius said. "For now, there are rooms available here, and you can get something to eat in the bar. I'll try to discover more about this particular dreamland, and tell you what I've learned the next time we talk."

"Thank you," Serenity said. "We appreciate your help."

Serenity rose to her feet and started down the stairs, followed by the others. Fred hung back, waiting, until the senshi were all well on their way.

"What's this going to cost us, Ambrosius?" Fred asked.

"Cost?" Ambrosius answered, looking confused. "It's not...oh. That's right. Arthur still doesn't trust me, does he?"

"Remember Vienna?" Fred asked. "He does. He also remembers Camelot, and the mess with the Goths, and a few other lifetimes, as well."

"He still mistakes me for Odin, eh?" Ambrosius asked with a heavy sigh. "As many times as I've told him that wasn't me, he still doesn't believe me."

"It might have something to do with all the other lifetimes," Fred said. "He doesn't want to be king, you know. All he wants is to be himself."

"A hero," Ambrosius said. "King or not, he can't help being a hero. It's as much his nature as fire is Sally's."

"Still, you know as well as I do, there's _always_ a price," Fred said. "I just want to know what it is, so I can plan for it."

Ambrosius looked at Skuld, who nodded. "It won't hurt to tell him. It might even help."

"The price," Ambrosius said with a sigh, "Is your daughter."

"My daughter?" Fred asked, shaking his head. "I don't have a daughter. I _can't_ have a child, male or female."

"In _your_ world, you can't," Ambrosius said. "But in _this_ world, you can. And you will."

"I...," Fred started, then looked down the stairs thoughtfully. "We'll be here that long?"

"All it takes is one night," Ambrosius said. "Don't worry. Your daughter will be as great a hero in _their_ world as Arthur is in _yours_."

"Don't worry, he says," Fred snorted. "Do you realize how reassuring that _isn't_?"

"I promise," Skuld said, "that your daughter will become a strong woman, and she will be both a hero and a woman you will be proud of. I give you my word as a Norn."

"And that's the price for your help in this?" Fred asked, turning his gaze from Skuld to Ambrosius and back again.

"Yes," Ambrosius said. "That's the price. I can't promise you'll ever get to see her, but she will be everything you would want her to be, whether you ever see her or not."

"I guess," Fred sighed, turning toward the stairs, "I can live with that." He turned back to face Ambrosius and Skuld. "Can you promise that you--either of you--will not stop me, if I _do_ find a way to visit them?"

"I can," Skuld said, while Ambrosius nodded. "If you find a way to visit their world, neither my sisters nor I will stop you."

"_All_ of your sisters?" Fred asked.

"_All_ of them," Skuld laughed. "I wouldn't be surprised if at least _one_ of my sisters insisted on joining you on the journey, if you do manage it."

"If I do," Fred said, smiling, "I would be glad of her company. After all, she _is_ one of my best friends."

"I know," Skuld chuckled. She winked and pointed at the stairs. "Now, don't you think you should get started on that daughter?"

Ami glanced at the door behind the bar, wondering what was taking Fred so long. They'd managed to find a seat, and order food, before she saw him come through the door. When she saw him, the look on his face made it clear he was thinking heavy thoughts. Then he saw her, and his face lit up as if his world had just brightened. She couldn't understand why. It wasn't as if she was beautiful, like Rei or Serenity, or strong like Makoto, or outgoing like Minako. She was just...the woman he loved.

It took her breath away, imagining that someone--anyone--loved her like that, but the way his face lit up when he saw her, she had to accept that it was true. At least she didn't react the way she had when she was younger, and even the thought of love would turn her world upside down. Now, it made her feel warm inside, like she was wrapped in a blanket that sheltered her from the world, and she wanted to keep that feeling forever.

"I'm sorry, Ami," Usagi said. "I know I didn't use the Ginzouishou when I wished for you, but..."

"Don't be," Ami said, giving Usagi a warm smile. "You heard what Skuld-sama said. Your wishes may be why we're here, but they're not why this place is here. And if being here is what it took for your wishes to come true," she looked at Fred and smiled happily, "then I'm happy to be here."

"I still don't like it," Rei grumbled.

"In case you hadn't noticed it," Ami said, "the man you're blaming doesn't like it, either. I'm pretty sure that, once he finds who's responsible for this, he's going to do to them what you've made pretty clear you'd like to do to him. So instead of being angry with him, why don't you save your anger for whoever's _really_ to blame?"

Rei opened her mouth, then closed it, then grumbled incoherently as Fred sat beside Ami and smiled lovingly at her.

"So, what's the special today?" Fred asked.

"Something called bock," Usagi said.

"Oh? Is it that time of year again?" Fred asked. Ami giggled. He looked as if he really _did_ need to ask what time of year it was. Fred blushed and shrugged. "Hey, I'm doing good to know what year it is, let alone what season." He tapped his temple with a fingertip. "They get all jumbled up in here, so I rely on Edgar to remind me if an important date is coming up."

"Yes, Dad," Edgar said, snickering. "It is, indeed, Easter."

"Why he brings out the bock on Easter, instead of during Lent, I'll never understand," Fred said, "but apparently, that's been his tradition since at least the Fourteenth Century. So, did anyone remember to order food?"

"You mean," Usagi asked, looking surprised enough that Ami had to bite her tongue to keep from laughing, "bock _isn't_ food?"

"I mean," Fred said with a laugh. "Bock is, or, at least, it was when it was invented, a substitute for food, which is why every other brewer in the world brings it out during Lent."

"Lent is a Catholic observance," Ami said, cutting off Usagi's question. "During the forty days before Easter, Medieval Catholics would fast from sunrise until Vespers, and even during their evening meal, they would abstain from meat, eggs, and dairy products. But beer was not considered food, so monks would make an especially strong beer to be drunk during Lent to make up for the food that they weren't eating. A single mug of bock has as much nutritional value as two slices of home-made bread."

"Ambrosius said I should talk to you," a young man in a dark suit said to Fred. He looked to Ami like he could have been a government agent, between the suit and his short hair. All he needed was sunglasses and a radio earpiece.

"Oh," Fred said, turning to smile at the newcomer. "Hi, Carl. Yes, everyone at this table needs ID, including me. Something that will pass in the world we're in. I could use some clothes, too."

"You could...?" Carl asked, then tilted his head as he studied Fred. "Oh, I see. You're using the same trick Eve uses. OK." He grabbed a chair from another table and pulled it up next to Minako's, then sat on it, apparently oblivious to the lustful look she was giving him. "I'm going to need some information from each of you in order to make the background pass."

"Whatever name you put on mine," Fred said, "it has to _not_ be my real name. Either of them."

"All right," Carl said, as calmly as if Fred had ordered a roast beef sandwich. "Do you have a preference?"

"Allan," Fred said after thinking a moment. "Make it David Allan."

"Pbbbbt," Edgar said.

"Be glad you don't need an ID," Fred shot back. Ami blinked, then made the connection and began giggling.

"What? What?" Usagi asked, looking from Fred to Ami.

"Once upon a midnight dreary," Ami intoned, focusing on the words to keep from dissolving into laughter, "while I pondered weak and weary..."

"Nevermore," Fred shot back, and Ami lost any hope of holding it in. She fell against him, laughing, while Usagi continued to demand to know what was going on.

"Since the Raven and Lenore seem to be unable to continue this," Carl said smoothly, "why don't we move on to the rest of you? Do any of you speak English well enough to get away with an American ID?"

"I lived in England for a while," Minako said, in English. "Does that count?"

"Close enough," Carl said. "What name would you like me to put on your ID?"

"Well, the last time I used an alias," Minako said, "it was Mina Harker. Would that work?"

"Mmm...," Carl mused a moment, then shook his head. "Too obvious. If you want to use that name, I'd suggest Murray instead." He paused and looked at Fred. "Yes?"

"Uh," Fred blushed, then laughed. "I could suggest names, except they might be too obvious."

"Go ahead," Carl said. "If they are, we can change them."

"OK," Fred said with a nod, then pointed around the table, starting with Ami. "Amy Anderson, Serena Suzuki, Raye Hino, Lita Sato, and Mina's already picked her name."

"OK," Carl said slowly, "You realize that if anyone in the Underground hears those names, they're going to think these women are Sailor Moon fangirls, right?"

"In the Underground?" Ami asked, leaning forward curiously. "And what do you mean by Sailor Moon fangirls?"

"Anime is banned in America," Carl said. "It has too many supernatural elements for the American government to allow it. So, the only people in America who've seen it are those who smuggle it in from Canada. There's an anime that was popular in Canada about ten years ago, called Sailor Moon, and the names Fred gave you all are the names they gave the main characters in the Canadian translation."

Fred smiled and shrugged, looking as if he was trying hard to feign innocence. Ami giggled and poked him in the ribs, then laughed and turned her attention back to Carl. "Yes, I've heard about that anime. Now, I'm going to tell you our real names. My name is Mizuno Ami. The girl who's trying to get into your pants is Aino Minako." Ami grinned and stuck her tongue out at Minako, who was sputtering in shock, probably that she would actually say something so bold. "My best friend here is Tsukino Usagi, and the couple at the other end of the table there are Hino Rei and Kino Makoto."

"I...see," Carl said slowly. "So...," he looked around slowly, "Where is Chiba Mamoru?"

Hearing Mamoru's name, Usagi broke into tears. Rei immediately moved to comfort her.

"He's back in our home universe," Ami said. "Whatever it was that brought us here, he wasn't affected by it. I'm hoping that time isn't passing for him, because if it is, he's going to have to watch over our bodies and get them somewhere safe until we find a way home."

"Only you, Fred," Carl said, rubbing his forehead and laughing softly. "You realize, Miri's going to be annoyed as hell that she isn't here with you?"

"So she can join me in convincing Ami to marry us?" Fred asked, "Or so she can laugh at how skilled I am at putting my foot in my mouth?" He grinned and added, "Besides, I thought the only thing that annoyed Hel was whining shades."

Ami snorted and elbowed Fred gently. "You haven't eaten your foot yet, Mister. And if Miri's good enough for you to love her, I have no doubt that I'll love her, too."

"I'll ask her about that the next time she stops in for a beer," Carl said. "Last time, she was having so much fun with Elsie and Vicki, I don't think anything could have annoyed her. Well, except Ares, but he annoys everyone."

"So I've heard," Fred snorted, while reaching for Ami's hand. "Anyway, aside from the Underground, how many people would recognize those names?"

"The DSS," Carl said firmly. "Mina Murray is British enough to pass, but the others are just too obvious. Hold on a moment..." His eyes glazed over, much as Fred's did when he was conversing with Edgar. Ami looked him over thoughtfully, wondering where he hid _his_ computer.

"All right," Carl said, when his attention returned to them. "Try these names on for size." He pointed at Usagi. "Takahashi Yuzuki." He pointed at Rei. "Suzuki Yumi." He pointed at Makoto. "Sato Moriko." Finally, he pointed at Ami. "Tanaka Aimi."

"Are you sure about that last one?" Ami asked in English. "The others are far enough from their real names that they can't be mistaken, but mine?"

"I know Fred," Carl said with a teasing smile. "No matter what name I give you, he's _going_ to slip up and call you Ami, and with his kind of luck, it'll happen at the worst possible time. Better to give you a name that is close enough that you can play it off as a slip of the tongue or a problem with his accent."

"Your confidence is underwhelming," Fred grumbled, but his smile made it clear to Ami he wasn't really unhappy with the choice. He looked at her lovingly and added, softly enough she was sure only she would hear, "Not that I'm complaining."

"Good," Carl said, "because complaining won't get you anywhere."

"Arg!" Fred growled. "Frakking Kinsmen!"

"Yes," Carl said with a smile. "What _would_ you do without us?"

"Have a lot more private conversations, for starters," Fred shot back, grinning.

"Hold that thought," Carl said, suddenly on his feet. Ami wasn't sure how he'd managed the transition. "I see someone I need to take care of before Sally sees him, or there'll be fireballs."

With that, he was gone, easily as fast as Haruka, if not faster. Ami looked toward the doorway, and saw Carl talking to a large, dark-haired man in black leather, with a sword sheathed across his back that shone with as much power as the Sword of the Moon.

"Ares," Fred said softly. Ami glanced at him and noticed he was looking in the same direction as she had been. "Now we'll see if he's on the clock, or off."

Ami looked back toward the door, where the discussion between Carl and Ares was winding down. Suddenly, Ares vanished, and in his place was an ordinary looking man--so ordinary that, if she hadn't seen what he'd looked like before, she would never have noticed him in the crowd.

"I guess that means he's off the clock," Fred chuckled. "Good. When he and Sally get going, they can level cities."

"That would be bad," Ami said softly, while trying unsuccessfully to follow the transformed Ares as he walked into the bar.

"I'll say," Fred teased. "It could make us spill our beer."

"Speaking of beer," Carl said, grinning at Fred as he deposited a tray full of mugs on the table, "I know you're not Catholic, so why wasn't there food in this order?"

"The menu said the special was bock!" Minako said.

"They ordered before I was back downstairs," Fred said, with a shrug. "Roast beef any good?"

"In a place like this?" Carl asked, broadly acting shocked by the question. "We'd be drawn and quartered if it wasn't!"

"OK," Fred said with a nod, then shifted to Japanese. "Rei, do you have a problem with beef?"

"Beef?" Rei asked, blinking suspiciously at Fred. "No...why?"

"The choices are pretty much roast beef, beef stew, mutton, pork," Fred glanced at Carl, "Chicken?" Carl nodded. "Or chicken. I'd recommend the beef. Or the mutton, if you're feeling adventurous. Pork's likely to be too rich if you're not used to a lot of meat in your diet, and you can never be too sure about chicken."

"This tastes sweet!" Usagi said, looking up from her mug with foam on her lips. "Like liquid sweet bread!"

"It's probably the best bock you'll ever drink," Fred said. "Even Arthur says that, and he doesn't like the place."

"I'd like roast beef," Ami said. "And..." She blushed as Carl chuckled.

"Bread and mustard?" Carl asked. "Or would you prefer horseradish?"

"B-Both? How did you know?"

"Fred isn't the only one who knows about your fondness for sandwiches," Carl said, grinning at Fred. "But if you settle for sandwiches, you'll miss the potatoes and gravy and roasted vegetables."

"Does it come with Yorkshire Pudding?" Minako asked. "I haven't had that in years."

"I'll ask the baker," Carl said. "If there is some, you'd like it?"

"Oh, yes!" Minako all but bounced. "I haven't had a good pudding since I left England!"

"Did you say roasted vegetables?" Rei asked. "In that case, I think I'd like the beef, too."

"Huh?" Usagi jumped, almost spilling her beer, when Rei nudged her. "Um, yes! I'd like food, too!"

"Got any beef pies?" Fred asked Carl. "I'll bet she'd love one, if you do."

"As a matter of fact, we do," Carl said. "They're pretty popular with the staff when we're on duty."

"I'd like to try one of those, too," Makoto said. "A good meat pie is hard to find."

"I'll go with the mutton," Fred said. "Cal's always getting to the sheep before I get a chance at them."

Minako turned a brilliant shade of crimson and began choking on her beer. Carl got the mug out of her hands and was slapping her on the back before anyone else was able to respond. Fred's eyes glinted and he smiled, like a snake sizing up a rat. He waited until she was reaching for her mug again before he spoke.

"Why, yes, as a matter of fact, I _do_ sometimes wear a kilt. Why do you ask?"

Minako was spared the embarassment of knocking her mug over only by Carl snatching it away before her hand could hit it when she jerked and stared at Fred, turning a color somewhere between red and purple as she spluttered.

Ami looked between Fred and Minako, not understanding what was going on, but certain that he had timed his statement deliberately. She elbowed him in the ribs and gave him an annoyed look. His look of wicked amusement wilted under her glare. He looked down at the table and whispered, miserably, "I'm sorry."

Now Ami felt miserable. She still didn't know what had gone on between Fred and Minako, but seeing him deflate like that, after nothing more than a look of annoyance, made her feel like a world-class heel. She reached out and touched his hand, then asked softly, "Tell me?" while the others discussed their orders around her.

"It was a joke," Fred said softly, still looking down at the table. "It was obvious Minako knew it, which was why she turned red the way she did. I just...wanted to let her know I knew the joke, too."

Ami gently turned Fred's face toward her, so she could look in his eyes as they spoke. "Please, explain it to me?"

"It's...a crude joke," Fred sighed. Ami held his gaze, refusing to let him go so easily. "Why do Scotsmen wear kilts?"

Ami considered the question a moment, then began to reach for her computer to search for the answer. Fred caught her hand and shook his head.

"It's a joke, Ami," he said. "It's not meant to begin a discussion of economics, culture, or fashion. It's meant to make people laugh."

"Oh," Ami said, then shook her head. "I don't know. Why _do_ Scotsmen wear kilts?"

"Because a sheep can hear a zipper at a hundred paces," Fred answered, blushing deeply.

Ami replayed the conversation in her memory, while trying to resolve the non-sequitor in her mind. What did sheep, Scotsmen, and zippers have to do with each other? Looking at Minako, a suspicion of the answer crept into her mind, and a hand went to her mouth in shock as she stared at Minako, her own cheeks catching fire at the idea that a thought like that could have bubbled to the surface of her friend's mind so freely, when all Fred had said was... She turned to Fred, catching the sad look in his eyes as he watched her, realizing that he must be sad because she had been shocked, but how could he have known the train her thoughts had taken?

"Fred? Who's Cal?" Ami asked. Now she saw the sadness in his eyes change to confusion, then to something resembling the love that was in them when he looked at her. This was much better--she'd do anything to never see that sadness again.

"Cal's my son," Fred said, smiling, faintly at first, then with obvious love and pride. "Adopted maybe, but that doesn't change the fact that he's my son. Hold on a sec, I have some photos I can send to your computer, if you'd like."

"I'd like that very much," Ami said, reaching out to retrieve her computer and open it. She wanted to see the boy who could make her Fred smile like that.

"I have both flat and holos," Fred said. "Which would you prefer?"

"Both?" Ami suggested. A moment later, the file transfer display told her she was receiving a compressed folder of images. The titles confused her: Hatching? First Flight? First Scylla? At least First Birthday seemed like a normal title. She opened that folder and found it was full of both flat and holographic images. Clicking on the first image in the folder filled her screen with a typical birthday party photo, with cake and ice cream and Fred and a woman who must be Miriam--olive skin, wavy brown hair, brown eyes, and a pilot's jumpsuit that said "MacManus" on it--standing proudly on either side of _a ruby-red dragon_? She looked from the picture to Fred, then back to the picture, then back to Fred. She began clicking on other files. In every one, the ruby-red dragon was the centerpiece, whether slurping Fred or Miriam, wrapped around a 2-meter-tall teddy bear, or up to his eye ridges in chocolate cake, it was all about the dragon.

"Isn't he adorable?" Fred asked. "The day he shredded his first Scylla ship, I was so happy, I think I made him high."

"Your...son...is _a dragon_?" Ami squeaked.

"Sure is," Fred said proudly. "I've been his daddy since the day I rescued his egg. That was also the first time I met Miriam, but that's another story."

He really didn't seem to see anything wrong with considering a dragon his son. Ami shook her head and looked back at her computer. She didn't recognize the file format the holographic images used, but was sure the computer would be able to decipher it if she told it to open one. So, she switched to the "First Scylla" folder and clicked on the first holographic image file. The computer's holo display activated, and the image formed. Unlike most images she had displayed this way, this image was amazingly solid and lifelike. It was as if she were looking at the scene, not merely a picture of it.

In the space above the computer, a small spaceship appeared. On top of the spaceship, wearing some kind of armored space suit with cannons mounted above the shoulders, a Western dragon, no more than six meters long, with a wingspan of about twelve meters, was ripping into the hull with its front claws.

"What in the world?" Makoto asked. "That looks like...a dragon in a space suit?"

"That's Cal," Fred said proudly. "That's the day he bagged his first Scylla."

"You sound...proud," Rei said, peering at Fred thoughtfully. "Why?"

"He's my son," Fred said with a grin. "I've been his daddy since the day I rescued his egg from a PLO camp in Egypt. He was only four months old then. Didn't even have his fire in yet."

"Wait, wait," Minako said. "He's your _son_?"

"Yup," Fred said with a grin. "And Miriam's his mommy." He looked at the confused looks on the senshi's faces and laughed. "OK, here's what happened. About a year before I started building Laputa, I was on a trip to the Sinai, visiting some monasteries, when I...happened upon...a PLO training camp near St. Catherine's. In a cave in that camp was what I know now was a nest, that had been buried for at least ten thousand years, until the cave was opened by the Palestinians. I rescued the egg and took it home with me, and two years later, Cal hatched, thanks to the help a dragon friend gave me in caring for it. Miriam and I were both there when he hatched, so she's his mommy as much as I am his daddy."

"Hey, is that a picture of Cal?" a waitress asked as she set a tray of food on the table. "Looks like he was having fun."

"Yup," Fred said, grinning. "That's his first Scylla."

"Um," Minako asked, "what is Scylla?"

"Scylla are a reptilian species," Fred said. "The dragons drove them off Earth about twenty thousand years ago, and they've been trying to recapture it since then."

"Nasty buggers," the waitress said. "As bad as orcs."

"Orcs?" Rei asked. "You mean, they're real?"

"Homo neanderthalensis," Fred said. "Definitely real, and most of them are nasty, barbaric brutes. Not all, though. There's a decent group of them in Laputa who are trying to fit in with modern society, but most of the ones we've met outside Laputa seem to be trying hard to live down to their reputation. Especially the ones who work for the DSS."

"You and Carl have both mentioned the DSS," Ami said. "What is it?"

"The American Department of State Security," Fred said, grumbling. "After the Bicentennial Dragon, the US government created a department that combined all federal and state police and security agencies, to 'combat the supernatural threat'. Mostly, they act like an American version of the Gestapo, complete with midnight raids, massacres, secret prisons, and 're-education camps'. They use orcs as their shock troops, and kidnap any children who show any kind of magical potential, so they can train them to use their abilities for the government."

"Your America sounds like a horrible place," Rei said.

"It is," Fred said. "The Bicentennial Dragon scared Americans so much that they willingly surrendered everything that made them a free people, for the sake of an imagined security."

"What is the Bicentennial Dragon?" Minako asked.

"We don't know what his name was," Fred said, "but he was the first clue anyone had that magic had returned to the world. He was an enormous black dragon who had been hibernating under the swamp that Washington D.C. was built on, and he woke up during the Bicentennial celebration on July 4, 1976. By the time the Air Force managed to kill him, he had leveled most of the city and killed every government official who was in the city for the celebration. The Secretary of Defense ended up as President, because he was home with the flu that day. Within a couple weeks, the State Security Act of 1976 was passed into law. It outlawed any use of magic outside of government-recognized religion, placed bounties on all supernatural creatures, created the DSS, and instituted a National ID. It's just gotten worse since then. In 1995, the US government 'suspended' the Constitution, and since then, the DSS has effectively _been_ the government."

"And you want to go back to that?" Ami asked, shocked at the way Fred had related it so calmly.

"No," Fred said. "I want to go back to Laputa. That's my home now, not America."

"So what's Laputa?" Rei asked.

"Do you know what a Beanstalk is?" Fred asked. When everyone shook their heads, including Ami, he sighed softly. "A Beanstalk is a tower, tall enough to reach into space. Laputa is a matched pair of Beanstalks, one in Ecuador and one in Indonesia. Each tower is ten miles in diameter, and twenty-four thousand miles tall. The towers are made of MacManusite, and are almost entirely self-contained. We even have enough arboreta in the towers to provide clean air, water, and food for as many people as could live in them. Right now, there are only a few thousand people living in the towers, but we could support the entire human race if we had to, with room to spare."

Ami closed the image file and ran quick calculations on her computer, then stared at Fred in shock. "But, even if you spaced the levels six meters apart, those towers would have more than ten times the area of the entire planet!"

"Sixteen times, actually," Fred said, smiling. "MacManusite and the Ravenfield are the only things that make it possible. The MacManusite gives us the structural strength we need, and the Ravenfield prevents them from sinking into the planet. It also gives us enough energy that we sell more than we use, and as far as I can tell, we will be able to sell more than we use no matter how many people live in the towers."

"The Ravenfield is that black energy field that surrounded you when we found you, right?" Ami asked.

"Right," Fred said. "It's kind of like a Crazy Eddie Field, but instead of keeping the energy within the field until it overloads or radiates out as light and heat, it converts it to usable energy."

"What's a Crazy Eddie Field?" Minako asked, while Ami typed furiously on her computer, looking for a reference she couldn't find.

"The proper name is...Edgar?"

"A Langston Field," Edgar said. "The reference is from a science fiction novel published in 1974. It's a force field that absorbs any energy that hits it, stores it in the field, then releases the energy as radiation over time. Unless it overloads, of course, in which case the energy is released both into and out of the field in the spot that overloaded."

"So, you were inspired by a book when you created it?" Minako asked.

"Isn't everyone?" Fred laughed. "All the best inventions come from people who were inspired by something, whether it's a book, a movie, a TV series, or even a dream, like Elias Howe, who made the modern sewing machine after seeing the needle design he needed in a dream. Still haven't worked out the Crazy Eddie Drive. It uses theories that are way too different from the drives used by the races we've met so far, and the only Scylla attempt to build something similar opened a portal to a Hell dimension. That was a trip, I can tell you."

"A Hell dimension?" Rei and Makoto asked, in stereo.

"Yeah," Fred said. "You know, demons, nasty environment, that kind of thing? It was our first contact with the Scylla. Well, our first contact after the ship that crashed and left Eve stranded on Earth, anyway. It popped out over Picnic Point, back in April of 1994. That was when most of my people met. We had to destroy both the demons and the Scylla ship."

"How did you destroy them?" Rei asked, leaning forward, her meal forgotten, as she looked at Fred.

"Alex and Lauren took care of most of the demons," Fred said with a laugh. "Mike and I mostly worked on keeping back the ones that hadn't come through the rift." His eyes shifted, looking into the distance as if he were seeing the battle again. "Ben, Eve, and Diana took care of the Scylla ship. Arthur killed anything that got past the rest of us." He smiled, shaking his head. "That was the first time Mike and I had met any of the others, but..." He relaxed in his seat and sighed. "You know how some friendships are stronger than steel? We've been together ever since. Sure, there are others who've joined our band since then, but those are the people I would rely on, no matter what."

"Friendship is stronger than anything," Usagi said, sounding just a little tipsy. She looked around the table and smiled at each of the senshi. "I wouldn't trade any one of you for the world." She looked at Fred and smiled warmly at him. "I know what you mean."

"Mmm...," Fred mused, looking at Usagi, then at Rei. "Rei, I think now might be a good time to see if Ambrosius has those rooms ready. Usagi might need one, you think?"

"I don't need a room!" Usagi said, standing unsteadily and knocking over her chair. "I need Mamo-chan!"

"Good idea," Rei said, and took Usagi's arm. "Come on, dumpling-head. Let's see how nice the rooms are here, ne?"

"You're so mean to me, Rei!" Usagi wailed as Rei led her away from the table. Ami sighed in relief. If there was anyone who could get Usagi to go, relatively quietly, it was Rei.

"So who are these friends you mentioned?" Minako asked. The question made sense to Ami--Minako always seemed to understand people best by knowing about who they cared for.

"Well," Fred said as he picked up his beer and took a sip. "Alex and Lauren are a couple. Alex is a daughter of Ienpu, a rock star, and the only member of her family the DSS didn't murder. Lauren is a daughter of Bast and a sorceress. Mike's a doctor, a genetic engineer, and Gryphon. He's the one who replaced all my military hardware with the hardware I designed myself. He was my doctor before I died, as well as one of my best friends." Fred laughed. "He's normally a quiet guy, doesn't like fuss and bother, but if you threaten his patients, he turns into an unstoppable force. There was this one time some Yakuza tried to break into his clinic to kill a patient of his. They had to scrap them up with a spatula." He took another sip and looked into the distance thoughtfully. "Ben's an artist, and runs a gallery in Laputa. He's also Eve's pilot. Eve's original designation, when she was built by the Scylla, was Ojato Suhi Ernetor Sujilo, which translates very roughly into 'Autonomous Probe Droid.' But that was before she bonded with Ben and became a person. Diana is Carl's big sister. Which, naturally, means that she's a Kinsman. Carl may have decided to pursue magic, but Diana's stuck with the family business. Ben and Eve and Diana are a triad, so anyone who messes with one of them has to deal with all three, which means none of the rest of us have to deal with them, usually. And Arthur is...well, he's _Arthur_. Caliburn was returned to him the night we fought those demons."

"So," Makoto asked, "What's a Kinsman?"

"Ever hear of the Masters of Sinanju?"

"Sinanju?" Makoto asked, her eyes widening. "The mythical origin of all martial arts?"

"And the best assassins in the world," Fred nodded. "Well, in my world, the stories of Sinanju are based on the Kinsman family. They've been assassins since the Atlantean Empire, and maybe even earlier. The oldest records in their family archives are still untranslatable, because they're written in languages that predate Atlantis. We _do_ know they're part dragon, which is where their name comes from, and we know the family can trace its history in an unbroken line back to before Atlantis, but we don't know how far before, because of that pesky language problem. Right now, there's only three of them, assuming Carl and Diana's father is still alive, but I suspect there'll be a new generation before much longer."

"Wait," Minako cut in. "Arthur? _King_ Arthur?"

"Shhh," Fred hissed, laughing. "Don't use the K-word around him. He hates it. Drives him nuts when the fae refer to him as 'The True-King.' All he wants is to be left alone to be an ordinary man this lifetime. Only problem is, he's a hero. He can't help it, any more than any of you can. It's as much a part of him as your planets are a part of you."

"What did you mean by 'daughter of Ienpu' and 'daughter of Bast'?" Ami asked.

Fred grinned and nodded at Ami's computer. "Incoming images. I think you'll be able to figure it out."

Ami pouted at Fred, who just chuckled in response. She humphed and watched the transfer indicator crawl towards completion, stealing a quick glance toward him now and then. He just smiled and watched her, making no apparent attempt to hide his amusement. When the transfer finished, Ami quickly scanned the two new folders--one for Alex and one for Lauren. Opening Alex's folder first, she found another folder in it, labeled "Sparrowhawk", along with a collection of photos and holos. She selected a holo labeled "Alex and Lauren hunting demons" and clicked on it. When the image solidified in mid-air, she caught her breath with a gasp, absently noting that Minako and Makoto had done the same.

"Alex's nickname is 'Silly Puppy'," Fred commented. Ami had trouble imagining how such a beautiful creature could be considered silly. She was a little over two meters tall, with reddish-black fur over her entire body, razor-sharp features, from the tip of her long and narrow muzzle to the end of her long and bushy tail, walked on two legs, the head of a canine, and the figure of a professional dancer. Beside her had to be Lauren, a slightly smaller creature, but still around two meters tall, with coal black fur, glowing amber eyes, and the face of Bast. Like Alex, she had the figure of a professional dancer. Where Alex carried an anti-tank cannon in one hand like a sawed-off shotgun, Lauren carried nothing more than an odd hook-bladed sword that glowed like her eyes.

"A kopesh," Fred said. Ami looked over at him, confused. He pointed at the holo. "It's called a kopesh. I have one of my own. Not the most efficient of swords, but it's traditional. They were heading out to kill a demon when I got that picture."

"So what's Sparrowhawk?" Ami asked, while clicking on the folder.

"That's Alex's band," Fred said. "They're pretty popular back home, everywhere except America. They have a decent following in the Underground, too. Rock isn't technically outlawed in America, but when the DSS finds out about a concert, it always gets raided. So most shows are done in clubs that give the band a way to escape without being caught, or are done by bands signed with Gold & Appel Records." He laughed. "For some reason, the DSS doesn't like to raid concerts with Bubasti security."

"That's what Lauren is?" Ami found a file named "Sparrowhawk Avir concert" and clicked on it. The image that formed showed a band playing in a huge room with clear walls that looked out into space. The band itself was made up of four women: an Indian woman in an emerald green jumpsuit covered with guns and knives who was singing, a black woman in a neon pink tube top playing drums, a blonde woman playing a keyboard, who looked as if she hadn't eaten in weeks, and a Middle Eastern woman in a brown dress playing a bass guitar.

"Yup," Fred said, leaning forward and pointing. "That's them. Alex is the Gypsy, Faith is the bass player, Crys is the keyboardist, and Tiffany is the drummer. We don't know for sure, but I suspect that their music and Ben's art is what convinced the Avir that we were a civilized species."

"Avir?" Ami ran a quick search and didn't find a reference.

"The first friendly alien species we met," Fred said. "They look kind of like humanoid birds. They came to us to ask for our help in dealing with the Scylla, after intercepting a transmission from the Scylla assault group we destroyed about a year earlier."

"The first?" Minako asked. "You mean, you've met more?"

"At last count," Fred said, "A couple dozen that we can deal with easily, and almost as many that are too weird for us to compete with, let alone deal with. Most of the weird ones are either star dwellers or live in gas giants. The ones that live on Earthlike planets are generally easy to deal with. It seems that races that have outgrown government, or that have imperial dictatorships, are the only ones that make it into interstellar travel. So far, the Scylla are the only imperials we've found, although our friends have mentioned a few others that are rumored to exist."

Rei returned to the table, without Usagi, and sat down to finish her meal. "She fell asleep as soon as I got her up there. The rooms are nice, and we each have our own."

"That's a relief," Fred said. "I didn't want anything to happen to her while she was drunk."

Rei looked thoughtfully at Fred for a moment, then nodded and started eating. Ami let out her breath, suddenly realizing she'd been holding it in anticipation of an angry response from Rei.

"Carl probably won't have the IDs ready until tomorrow," Fred said, "so we should take this chance to rest and plan what we're going to do then. Edgar?"

"I have enough data from what I scanned to have a report ready by then," Edgar said. "Whatever we do, we're probably going to end up dealing with the Emperor before we can get out of here."

"Lovely," Fred grumbled.

Ami smiled and squeezed his hand under the table, then carefully placed it on her thigh, blushing as she did. All the time they'd been sitting there, he hadn't even tried to touch her, despite what she thought had been clear signals she wanted him to. Maybe now he would.

--

Disclaimer: If you recognize it, and it's not from Knights in Tarnished Armor, it's not mine. Sailor Moon belongs to Takeuchi Naoko, and a few companies that published her work. Skuld belongs to Herself, and wouldn't likely recognize anyone else's claim on Her anyway.


	3. Chapter 3: Terror and Tenderness

Fred sat on the bed in the room Ambrosius had given him, wishing he had his stuffed rabbit right now. He desperately needed something to cuddle, to help him cope with the knowledge that he was going to have to face _Her_ before this mess was over. Someone knocked at the door, and he didn't go through the ceiling only because Edgar cut off the jump reflex before it reached his body.

"Fred?" Ami called from the hallway. "May I join you?"

"_Deep breath, Fred,_" he thought. "_It's just Ami. She's not going to hurt you._"

"Uh, sure," Fred called back, while quickly scanning around himself to make sure he hadn't left anything obviously out of place. "It should be open."

The door opened and Ami slipped in, then closed it behind herself. She stopped, her back against the door, as she looked Fred over. He felt as if she were dissecting him with her eyes. After what felt to Fred like an eternity, Ami walked slowly to the bed, knelt on the floor in front of him, and took his hands, while looking up into his face.

"How bad is it?" she asked.

"B-bad?" Fred stammered, staring at her in shock. _She knows! But how does she know? Am I that obvious?_

"Yes," Ami said softly, then kissed his hands gently. "It took me some time to figure it out, but I realized that you weren't really responding to me downstairs, so you had to be responding to something inside. Something that still hurts terribly."

Fred closed his eyes and let out a heavy sigh. _Damn. How can I explain it to her?_

"Fred?" Ami touched his cheek and whispered gently, "You're crying. What can I do?"

"I'm sorry," Fred whispered. "I...where do I start?"

"Why not start wherever seems right?"

Fred caught Ami's hands and gently pulled, felt her rise to meet him, and wrapped his arms around her. "Just...hold me? Please? I...I'll try to explain. I just don't know how."

"Shhhh," Ami whispered gently, while holding Fred tightly. "There's no rush. I'm here. I won't let go."

Fred shivered against Ami, his mind racing as he tried to calm himself. _It's Ami, not _Her_. Ami won't hurt me. _She _can't hurt me, ever again. I'm safe. I have to remember, I'm safe now._

Ami's lips touched Fred's cheek, then his ear, and she whispered softly, "I'm here, Fred. I promise, I won't let anyone hurt you. I'm here. I love you."

"The Empress," Fred whispered, then shuddered and held Ami tightly, lost in a flood of memories, unable to keep them at bay any longer.

"Edgar?" Ami squeaked. "I...can't...breathe."

Edgar reduced the pressure Fred was applying to Ami and extruded a cable with a contact pad. "Dad's lost," he said softly. "If you want to understand, let me put this at the base of your skull."

"Anything," Ami said, after drawing in a deep breath. "I want to help."

The cable nestled against the back of Ami's neck, and Edgar adjusted the signal until he made contact with Ami's mind. "_Can you hear me now?_"

"_I...yes, I can,_" Ami's voice carried a tone of surprise and wonder. "_Let me see?_"

"_If it becomes too much, just break the connection, OK?_"

"_If it'll help me understand, it can't be too much,_" Ami said firmly. "_I want to understand what's hurting him so much._"

Ami felt the images, sensations, remembered words and actions, flooding into her. A woman, her hair as dark as Rei's, radiating evil as strongly as any youma, was the center of all the memories. Everywhere she turned, the woman was there, attacking, tormenting, demeaning Fred at every turn. Not only Fred, but _anyone_ who got close to her.

_"The only mistake Hitler made was picking the Jews instead of the Christians," the woman declared, as well as, "You're all just cardboard cut-outs. I'm the only real person, the rest of you are nothing but toys, to be used the way I see fit."_

Ami watched, helplessly, as Fred's very existence was cut into shreds by the woman. _"Love? That's just a word you use to manipulate people, to make them do what you want them to do. Only a spineless moron would believe love is real. I own you. Don't ever forget that."_

It seemed an eternity before Ami could take no more and jerked the contact away from her neck, crying as she hugged Fred with all her strength. "Kami-sama...no wonder..." Ami roughly rubbed her cheeks with one hand, trying to clear away the tears so she could see. She looked at Fred, still lost in his memories, took his head in her hands, and kissed him, focusing on now, concentrating on the feelings that had risen in her when he told her he loved her, trying to pour those feelings into him through her kiss.

"I'm sorry," Fred whispered, weakly trying to push away. Ami held tight, refusing to let him get away from her embrace.

"No," Ami said firmly. "You did nothing to apologize for. _Nothing_."

"But...you're crying," Fred whispered. "It must be my fault."

"That's _her_ talking," Ami growled. She looked into Fred's eyes and repeated, "You did _nothing_ to apologize for. _She_ is the one to blame for this, not you. I swear, if I ever get the chance to make her pay..."

"But...," Fred saw the resolve in Ami's eyes and sighed softly, then whispered, "Can you forgive me for...for..."

"There's nothing to forgive," Ami said, taking Fred's head in her hands and holding him firmly as she looked into his eyes. "I had to know. I had to know what was hurting you so badly, why you...I'm so sorry, I didn't realize how bad it was. When I got annoyed at the table, and you reacted the way you did, I didn't understand. I just wanted to make the sadness go away. I didn't know how deep it was."

"You couldn't know," Fred said softly. "I...for years, the only women I could be around were lesbians. I couldn't even get near Miri, until Cal hatched. She wouldn't let me keep her out, and when Cal adopted her alongside me, I finally realized it was safe to let her in."

"Kind of like me, huh?" Ami asked, smiling. "I'm not going to let you keep me out, Fred. I've seen the worst, and I'm not going to let go."

"Even...," Fred started, then sighed and hugged Ami close. "Even knowing what you know, you're not going to let go?"

"Not a chance." Ami worked her way into his lap and batted her eyes at him, then giggled when he smiled. "Not now, not ever." She rested her head against his chest and whispered, "It makes me feel good when I can get you to smile."

"Silly," Fred chuckled. "I'd do anything to make you feel good." He squeezed her gently and whispered, uncertainly, "Would you...I mean..."

"Hm?" Ami asked, looking up and stretching to kiss the tip of his nose. "Would I what?" She blushed and ducked her head, then teased, "I hope you're not asking if I would leave, because I plan to stay right here. Unless you have a more comfortable place for me, that is."

Fred swallowed and looked down at her, then took a deep breath and whispered, wonderingly, "You...do? You...you don't mind me holding you like this?"

"Don't mind?" Ami laughed, then pressed a hand against his chest. "It's kind of weird, not hearing a heartbeat, but..." She took his hand and guided it to rest between her breasts. "Feel that? It's beating for you." She tilted her head to look past him, toward the bed. "Wouldn't it be more comfortable if we were to lay down?" She glanced up, saw the look of adoration in his eyes, and blushed deeply, while reaching up to stroke his cheek. "I'm just me, Fred. I'm not that special."

"You are to me," Fred said softly, his hand moving from her chest to caress her cheek. "You are the most special woman in this world, the one I would go through Hell for. The one I would live for. I...if I could find a way to take you home with me..."

"I know," Ami whispered. "If I could find a way to take you home with me, I would. But we have each other here, now. And we'll find a way to be together, even after we're no longer here. I promise, I will not rest until I'm sure of that."

"Nor will I," Fred said, looking into Ami's eyes. "I love you, Ami. With all that's in me, I love you."

BEEP BEEP 

Fred jumped, and Ami bit off an under-the-breath "kuso" as she pulled out her communicator. "Yes?"

"I'm at your room and you're not here," Rei said. "Where are you?"

"I'm in Fred's room," Ami said. "What's the problem?"

"I'm coming over," Rei growled.

"NO!" Ami barked. "If you come into Fred's room without his express invitation, I will throw you out."

"What are you talking about?" Rei asked. "What kind of trouble are you in?"

"_Edgar?_" Ami thought. "_Can you hear me?_"

"_Loud and clear_," Edgar replied.

"_Good. Patch me through to Fred._"

"_OK. You're through._"

"_Fred?_" Ami focused on her love for him as she sent her thoughts through Edgar's link. "_I'm about to say some things that you're not going to want to hear. I need you to not say anything while I'm talking, and I need you to think about what I'm saying, because it is, to the best of my understanding, true. And unless you have a therapist who's addressing it, you're going to continue hurting the way you hurt right now, and I do not want that for you._"

"_Ami,_" Fred answered slowly, deliberately, focused on the love she had sent him, and responding with all the love he could muster. "_I have absolute faith in you. Edgar, if I try to say anything before Ami's ready for me, I want you to stop it from getting out, OK?_"

"_I'm not sure, Dad...,_" Edgar answered. "_I trust Ami, too, but I know how hard it is for you._"

"_She wouldn't ask me to keep quiet if it wasn't necessary._"

"_All right, but if it gets to be too much, I'm not going to cut you off._"

"_Fair enough, Edgar,_" Ami said. "_Thank you, Fred._"

"_I'm_ not in any trouble, Rei," Ami said into her communicator. She held it far enough away from herself that Rei could see she was fully clothed and unharmed. "On the other hand, if you come in here, _you_ will be in trouble. With me, at the very least."

"What are you talking about?" Rei demanded.

"Rei, have you ever had to counsel a rape victim?" Ami asked. "Someone who was repeatedly raped over a period of years, who was so brutalized that she couldn't even _look_ at a man without having a breakdown?"

"I...not anyone who was that badly hurt," Rei said, "but I have counseled rape victims, yes."

"Well," Ami took a deep breath and forged ahead. "What would you do if you were dealing with a rape victim, and a man came barging in, acting like the person who had raped her?"

"I'd throw him so hard he wouldn't hit the ground until he reached the bus stop!" Rei growled.

"Good," Ami said. "Now you know what I'll do to you if you come through that door."

"But!" Rei sputtered. "That's impossible! Men can't--"

"Men can!" Ami shot back. "I know. I've been in his memories. We're lucky he let us get near him at all! If we weren't what we are, he would have run screaming as soon as you started berating him, way back in the woods. The only reason he didn't is because he recognized us, and because, despite how terribly damaged he is, he still has the capacity to love. I don't know why he picked me, but I'm not going to let him down, Rei. I'm not going to stand by and let anyone hurt him, not even you."

"He...," Rei trailed off, her image in the communicator wavering between stricken, disbelieving, and angry. "Why didn't he say something?"

"How many rape victims do you know who are willing to stand up and announce it to the world?"

"Oh."

Ami turned her attention from the communicator to Fred. He was shaking, tears flowing between tightly clenched eyelids, his arms wrapped around her and holding her as tightly as Edgar would let him. She gently caressed his cheek and reached up to kiss him, then whispered, "I am here, my love. I will never leave you. I will never let anyone hurt you, as long as I have the power to prevent it."

"If that's the case, you need me," Rei said.

"No," Ami replied firmly. "I need your advice, yes. But you are the _last_ person who should be around him right now, Rei. From the moment we landed in this world, you have been acting like his rapist. If he didn't have an absurdly high faith in us, your behavior would have ensured that even I wouldn't be getting the chance I'm getting now."

"It can't really be that bad, can it?" Rei asked, weakly.

"Yes, it can," Ami said. "He's not merely afraid of women, he's phobic. He couldn't even deal with his wife until his son pushed them together. Think about it, Rei. It took a dragon's protection to make him feel safe enough to let a woman touch him. A _dragon!_"

"Doesn't he have a therapist? A priest? Anyone to help him?"

"_Edgar?_" Ami asked. "_Does he?_"

"_Michael,_" Edgar said. "_He's a Bubasti. But we haven't gotten this deep with him. It's all been superficial, up until now. Michael's been letting Fred guide their sessions, and Fred's never approached the heart of darkness. Not until today, anyway._"

"He does, but they hadn't reached this point in their sessions yet."

"I don't understand," Rei said, her image reflecting her confusion. "If he hasn't reached this point with his therapist, how did he reach it with you?"

"He didn't," Ami said. "He reached it before I got here. All I've been doing is holding him while it hits him."

"Then, what happened?"

"The Empress," Ami said. "SHE is the dream image of his rapist."

"Oh." Rei said softly. "Shit." She took a deep breath and added, almost in a whisper, "We have a long way to go, Ami. Since I've already made it impossible to work with him directly, all I can do is suggest things for you to try. I don't know what they've been teaching you in med school, or if they have been teaching you anything about how to handle situations like this, but I'll offer you whatever I can from my own experience."

"Thank you, Rei," Ami said, sighing with relief. "That means a lot. There's something else I need your help with, too. Can you tell the others, just whatever you would as a counselor, so that they don't try to push themselves on him? And make sure Usagi understands that she _can't_ heal him? As much as she'd like to, this is something that she just _can not do_."

"You don't have to worry on that front," Rei said. "She's already learned, the hard way, that none of her magic will heal this kind of wound. I'll take care of the others. Don't worry about that, either."

"Thanks, Rei. I don't think you'll see either me or Fred before tomorrow. If we need help, you'll get the call, from either me or Edgar."

"Take care of him," Rei said softly. "And, in case it's worth anything, would you tell him I'm sorry? I know it doesn't mean much right now, but I really am sorry."

"I will, Rei," Ami said. "I promise. But don't be too hard on yourself, OK? You had no way of knowing. I didn't know until I dove into his memories."

"The signs were there," Rei said. "I just didn't bother to read them. You get back to him, OK? I need to go talk to the others." She clicked off, leaving Ami looking into a blank screen for a moment, before she sighed and pocketed her communicator.

"Fred? Sweetheart?" Ami slipped off his lap, forcing him to release her so she wouldn't fall, and took his hands. She slid onto the bed, pulling him after her, and patted the top of her left breast. "Just rest your head right here, my love. You don't have to say anything. Just curl up with me and let me hold you."

Fred followed her lead, curling up against her and resting his head on her breast, still shaking wordlessly as she wrapped her arms around him and gently stroked the back of his head.

"_Edgar?_"

"_He's screaming, Ami. All this time, he's classified it as simply abuse, as nothing more than ordinary violence. Hearing you name it like that...he's been denying it for so long that having it out in the open that way is more than he can take._"

"Fred, my love," Ami crooned gently, her hands continuing their gentle caresses, "you are not alone. I am here. I love you. I will never let go. I will not let anyone hurt you that way again. I am here, my love. I'll keep you safe."

"_Edgar?_" Ami asked. "_What time is it?_"

"_3:27 a.m._" Edgar answered. "_Fred's finally out. He couldn't have done it if you hadn't been holding him._"

"_Will we be able to help him?_"

"_Only if he lets us. You're not Michael, but if Rei gives the help she promised, you should manage just fine. The fact that he loves you as much as you love him should help._"

"_I want to kill her. Slowly._"

"_I know. I've wanted to since the day I Awakened._"

Ami sighed softly and shifted a little, trying to find a position that was more comfortable. As much as Fred needed her, she needed the bathroom. She wasn't sure she'd make it to morning. "_Edgar? Can you keep him under until I get back?_"

"No problem." Edgar chuckled. "A distinct advantage to our configuration is that we don't have to deal with waste the way organic bodies do. Anything that doesn't feed our organic parts gets broken down for system maintenance."

"Lucky," Ami grumbled softly as she wormed her way out from under Fred. "I'll be back as fast as I can."

"Don't worry. I can keep Dad in delta sleep for as long as you need. Then we can talk, eh?"

"Good idea. I want to know about Michael, and anything else you can tell me about how Fred's been coping."

Ami scurried to the room's bathroom, and was back in just under five minutes, after a quick wash-up. She knelt on the bed and studied Fred thoughtfully for a few moments.

"Ami?" Edgar asked when she didn't speak right away. "Why did you describe what she did to Dad as rape?"

"It was the only way I could think of at the time to convey to Rei just how badly she'd hurt him," Ami said with a heavy sigh. "Now that I think about it, it fits better than I realized. What _is_ rape, really?"

"Which definition would you like?" Edgar asked. If he'd had a face, Ami wouldn't have been surprised if he were wearing a disgusted look. "Every nation, state, and even some cities, defines it differently."

"How about a meta-definition?" Ami asked.

"That's easy," Edgar said. "Rape is the use of sex to assault another person. It differs from lesser degrees of sexual assault only in the severity of injury caused to the victim's body and/or mind." He paused, then snorted. "Now I see why you used the term. It _does_ fit, doesn't it?"

"Yes," Ami sighed. "I'm surprised he can tolerate _any_ women, even lesbians, with what she did to him."

"It's a miracle he can," Edgar said. "The lesbians who associate with him are a big part of why he was able to accept it when Cal adopted Miriam. They showed him, just by the way they behave normally, that not all women are like his ex."

"Yeah, and I'll bet her line of 'sex is for animals' kept running through his head at first." Ami sighed softly and caressed Fred's hair. "It makes me wonder how many pieces he's broken into."

"Not nearly as many as he was when I Awakened," Edgar said. "Being constantly in touch with me has been good for him. He gets to experience the presence of a relatively sane mind."

"Only relatively?" Ami teased, laughing.

"But of course," Edgar shot back. "SPOON!"

"Uh...spoon?" Ami asked. "What does _that_ mean?"

"It means that, on our world, we are a superhero." Edgar snickered. "But we're not nearly as dim as the big blue guy."

"The...big...blue...guy...," Ami shook her head. "You realize, I have absolutely no idea what you're talking about."

"Better get out your computer, then," Edgar laughed. "Files coming your way."

Ami shook her head, smiling, as she retrieved her computer. Sure enough, the file transfer screen was up. After a few moments, the transfer finished and she opened the first file, something called "The Tick vs The Idea Men". Within a minute, she was giggling, then laughing. "You have _got_ to be kidding me! This is...well, I'm not sure whether to call it absurd or surreal."

"How about both?" Edgar asked, his voice dripping with innocence.

"OK, I'll buy that," Ami said. "Where did this come from?"

"The Tick was originally an underground comic, created by a guy from Boston," Edgar said. "He was one of Arthur's first rescues. He lives in Laputa now, and this anime has been running for almost ten years on Cal's TV network."

"Cal has a TV network?" Ami blinked. "But he's only eleven years old!"

"Yup," Edgar said with a laugh. "Dragons have a talent for finding profit in the darnedest places. Besides, if he's in charge of creating stuff like this, he can add the originals to his hoard."

"So Cal hoards anime?" Ami laughed. "I have to admit, that's something I wouldn't have imagined."

"Yeah. He says gold's only good for buying stuff, so he keeps the stuff he thinks is really valuable. Anime, manga, movies, TV shows, artwork, books..."

"And he's not a mad scientist like Fred?"

"Nobody is a mad scientist like Fred," Edgar said, a strong current of pride in his voice. "Cal _is_ a mad scientist, though. He invents new ways to print things, to record things, to preserve valuable recordings, that kind of thing. He's also working on ways to read the ancient recordings we sometimes dig up in pre-Atlantean ruins. Or in Diana's archives, for that matter."

"And he's been doing this since he was only a year old?" Ami smiled, imagining a little dragon ordering around the people it would take to produce an anime.

"Yup. As far as he's concerned, it's the best game in the world. Even better than shredding Scylla."

"How does Miriam handle it?" Ami asked, then added, "How does she handle Fred?"

"Mostly, the same way you've been handling him," Edgar said. "The best thing she's done for him is to remind him, as often as possible, that she loves him, that she wants him, and that the things his ex used to attack him are things she values about him."

"So," Ami mused, studying Fred thoughtfully, "he _can_ have sex, if he's guided into it with love?"

"It's the only way he can," Edgar admitted. "Thanks to his ex, the idea of sex terrifies him and makes him feel as if he's unclean and unworthy." He sighed softly. "Even now, Miri has to show him that she doesn't see him that way, that she sees him as worthy of love, as a decent and wonderful human being, and that making love is a way to express that goodness inside him. But even Miri can't get through to him when he's been triggered this badly. All she can do is what you've been doing. Hold him, soothe him, help him get the pain out so that he can hear her when she reminds him of how much she loves him."

Ami closed her computer and put it away, started to lay down beside Fred, then sat up as an idea occurred to her. "Edgar, how would he respond if I were to be nude when he woke up?"

"In his current state?" Edgar thought for a moment before answering. "He would probably think he did something to hurt you, that he somehow made you undress against your will."

"How much work would it be for me to convince him otherwise?"

"Don't even try. It'd be better, if you want to be nude with him, to wait until he's awake, then undress. He'd still believe he did something wrong, but at least then you'd be able to convince him he hadn't, if you're half as stubborn as I think you are."

"Thanks," Ami giggled, blearily. "I think. OK, then. I'm going back to sleep. I should know better than to try to make serious plans when I'm not fully awake."

Fred returned abruptly to consciousness and, before opening his eyes, scanned the surroundings for whatever threat it was that had awakened him. No obvious threats jumped out, so he took inventory of his physical condition, wondering if that was what had done it. Damn. He'd gone to bed fully clothed. He hated it when he did that, because he always woke up feeling as if he were tangled in fabric. He felt Miri snuggled against him, and relaxed some. If there were a real threat, Edgar and Ruth would have alerted both of them. He turned toward her with a smile and froze. That wasn't Miri. The evening before crashed into his consciousness and he let out a weak whimper.

"Is my bed head really _that_ awful?" Ami asked, then raised her head and stretched to give him a kiss. "Told you I wasn't going anywhere, love. What time is it?"

"6:43," Fred answered automatically, taking the time from Edgar without conscious thought. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to..."

"Shhh," Ami said, putting a finger on his lips. "You didn't do anything. I _chose_ to stay with you. And I choose to _remain_ with you. Unless, of course, you don't want me."

Of course, he wanted her! But, why would she want him? He was easily twice her age, he had perverted, animal desires...

"_You mean, those 'animal desires' that Miri has to coax you into expressing?_" Edgar slid into his thoughts. "_Or maybe those 'animal desires' that Ami herself made very clear she has for you?_"

Fred swallowed hard and whispered weakly, "Even as bad as I am, you want me?"

"Fred, my love," Ami said gently, while shifting so she could gently stroke his cheek, "if _you_ are bad, then I must be the scum of the universe." She tilted her head and batted her eyes at him. "Can you imagine me as a villain?"

"Uh...no?"

"So, if you can't imagine me as a villain, how am I supposed to imagine you as bad?" Ami grinned at him, impishly daring him to fault her logic--or lack thereof.

"But...but...you saw!" Fred moaned. "If I'd just been good enough..."

"Fred, love," Ami sighed and pulled him close. "You could have been a saint and it wouldn't have been good enough for her. There's no such thing as 'good enough' for someone like that. It's just an excuse they use to shift the blame from themselves to their victims. Like you."

"Survivor," Fred mumbled.

"Fred," Ami sighed, "how can you say you're a survivor when it's still tearing you apart? Doesn't it have to be over before you can say you've survived it?" She hugged him tightly and whispered, "Believe me, love, you _are_ good enough. Good enough for me, good enough for Miri, good enough for _any_ decent human being."

"Don't want anyone," Fred murmured. "Want you."

"Well," Ami said firmly, while guiding Fred's hand to her breast, "you have me. _All_ of me." When Fred's hand slid off her breast, along her ribs, to press against her back, she smiled up at him and whispered, "Thank you, love. Thank you for being brave enough to _not_ do what I seemed to want you to do. That tells me _She_ doesn't have nearly the grip on you that you're afraid she has."

Fred blushed, looked into Ami's eyes for a moment, then kissed her. She snuggled against him and purred softly into the kiss.

"_What? Not going to strip for him?_" Edgar teased.

"_No_," Ami thought back. "_He's not ready. And, honestly, I'll feel better about it when he's together enough to say he wants it, rather than getting it foisted on him._"

"_And you're a virgin._"

"_Yes, I--wait! How did you know that?_" Ami felt as if her face were going to spontaneously combust.

"_Ami_," Edgar laughed in her mind, "_with the data I have access to from the network, I can tell when someone doesn't have experience, no matter how seductive she tries to be. If you want real experience, you should meet Alex. She has five wives and as many girlfriends as she can find the time and energy for. But that just wouldn't be you. It wouldn't even be Minako, and she's as close to being like Alex as any of you come. Don't worry about it, ok? I'm not going to tell Dad. He'll find out soon enough, if you actually want him to._"

"_I do_," Ami started, then felt herself stumbling into a block that rational thought just wouldn't go through. Love? Sex? Romance? What was she thinking? And with someone she'd just met yesterday? Admittedly, she knew him as well as she knew herself--better than most people who'd lived together for a lifetime could ever hope to know their partners--but could that really explain how deeply she wanted him, how strongly she felt for him? The way she felt, she might as well already be married to him! Then again, she'd already lived a lifetime inside his memories...

"Ami? What's wrong?" Fred's gentle, worried tone cut through her whirling thoughts. She blinked and looked up, saw the fear and love in his eyes, and stretched to quickly peck his lips.

"I'm ok. Just realized how much has changed since yesterday," Ami paused when she saw Fred's face fall, and quickly added, "and how much more I want to change. As long as it means I can be with you, that is."

"As long as...," Fred whispered, wonderingly. He touched his lips with his fingertips, then touched hers, as if unable to believe that she would kiss him so readily, of her own free will. "You really do want...wow."

"Yes," Ami said, smiling as she touched his lips with her fingertips. "I really do want. Will you let me have?"

"I...uh..."

Ami could see the war in his eyes, between desire and fear, love and guilt. She touched his lips again and whispered, "Later, my love. For now, the ache in my stomach has more to do with a lack of food than a lack of you." She slid off the bed and offered her hands. "Will you stay with me today, Fred? Stay at my side, no matter what happens?"

Fred looked from her hands to her eyes, back to her hands, then back to her face, his own lighting up in wonder as he finally began to understand that, even given the chance to leave him, she wanted him at her side. He nodded, too overcome to speak, and took her hands as he flowed off the bed, his 't-shirt' reconfiguring to read "MacManus Wrecking & Salvage: Used Scylla Parts Since 1994 (We also deal in used Scylla spaceship parts...)".

--

disclaimer: If you recognize it, and it's not from Knights in Tarnished Armor, it's not mine. Sailor Moon is the property of Takeuchi Naoko, and a few companies that published her stuff.

author's note: What Ami sees and hears in Fred's memories are not made up for this story. They actually happened, and what his ex-wife says in his memories are as close to an exact quote as it is possible to remember after ten years.

Some people might disagree with my rating of this chapter. _Tough! _They probably disagree with the existence of sexual information in their school nurse's office, or the number of the local suicide hotline being posted in their school counselor's office, too.


	4. Chapter 4: Breakfast and Planning

Rei sat where she could see the door to the upstairs rooms. She'd had very little sleep the night before, and had had to fend off Makochan's questions more times than she wanted to think about. Now, she hoped that she'd have a chance to make things right--or at least make a start at it. At least Usagi and Minako hadn't dragged themselves downstairs yet, so she was spared the headache of dealing with _their_ questions, too.

A little after seven, Ami and Fred appeared. This time, she watched carefully as they crossed the bar to join her, noting how they held hands like an old married couple, yet he kept glancing at Ami, as if amazed that she was willing to give him the time of day, let alone anything else. Despite his apparent focus on Ami, Rei noticed that he had that familiar hyper-awareness of his surroundings, the way so many trauma survivors back home did. He didn't appear to be aware, yet he always managed to be just barely out of reach when a flailing hand passed too close, or turning to look at Ami just in time to avoid being hit by a falling mug, and so it went, all the way across the inn. By the time Ami and Fred reached the table, Rei found herself wondering just how many years he _had_ been a prisoner. His defensive responses were so automatic, it was as if he had grown up with them.

"MacManus-san," Rei began, then paused, holding her breath and reaching out to restrain Makoto when she saw Fred tensing at the sound of her voice. Yesterday, she'd just assumed he was a typical spoiled American who was taking out his frustrations on everyone around him. Knowing what she knew now, though, she could see what she should have seen right away--and knew she would have seen it if he were a woman. Even his anger was a defensive response, a way to keep potential threats far enough away they couldn't hurt him, and she had, she knew, marked herself as a threat with the first words out of her mouth when she had seen him. She glanced at Makochan and shook her head. As much as it galled her, she knew she had to do this, and she couldn't explain it to Makochan any better than she already had. She took a deep breath and tried again. "MacManus-san, I would like to apologize for my behavior yesterday. It was inexcusable. I ask only that you give me the opportunity to demonstrate that what you believe about us, as a group, might also be true of me."

Fred's eyes registered surprise, then suspicion. Rei could pretty well guess that he was wondering where she was hiding the poisoned dagger. She could understand his suspicion, but at the same time, it hurt to see it coming from anyone other than a youma. She felt Mako shifting and shook her head. "No, Makochan. MacManus-san is right. He has every right to be suspicious of me, considering how I treated him yesterday." She looked at Fred and added, "I can not guarantee that my temper will remain under control at all times, but I will do my best."

Fred turned to whisper to Ami, who whispered back. The exchange continued for several rounds, until Ami's voice became just loud enough to hear across the table as she hissed to Fred, "The catch is that if she hurts you, I'll pound her into next week, and she knows it!"

Rei really did have to find out just how long he'd been a prisoner. Worrying about what the catch is, to an apology, of all things, was something Rei had only seen in the most beaten of her clients. At least he seemed to accept Ami's words at face value. That had to be a start.

"Wow. The tension is thick enough to cut with a chainsaw," the blonde who'd met them at the door yesterday--Sally, was it?--said. "So, who's in the mood for food?"

Ami looked up at Sally and nodded. "We'd like some breakfast. Whatever you have available would be good."

"I know what Fred likes," Sally laughed, "but what about the rest of you? I'm not sure if we have any pickles other than sauerkraut, and we usually serve that with lunch and dinner, but we do have all the usual Western breakfast items."

"I'll have whatever Fred's having," Ami said. She laughed when he gave her a worried look and teased gently, "Don't worry, love. If it's too much for me, I'll just put it on your plate."

"Oatmeal will be fine," Rei said. "And tea, if you have it."

"What kind?" Sally asked. "We have a decent selection, mostly black teas. And what would you like with your oatmeal? Milk, honey, fruit, anything else in particular?"

"Honey sounds good, and a pot of English tea." Rei nudged Makochan. "Well?"

"Oh," Makoto jumped at the nudge. "Do you have pastries?"

"Oy, do we have pastries!" Sally laughed. "Anything from cinnamon rolls to cake. Just name it, and we probably have it."

"OK, how about honey buns?" Makoto suggested. "You should probably bring a plate of them, while you're at it. Usagi and Minako aren't very functional when they first come down."

"Gotcha," Sally said, nodding. "A plate of honey buns, a pot of English tea, coffee, oatmeal, and two orders of Fred's usual. It'll be a few minutes." She studied Fred and Ami for a few moments, then asked softly, "Fred, do you need me to hunt down Q?"

"Q?" Fred jumped and looked at Sally for a few moments, as if trying to grasp what she was saying, then nodded. "Good idea. If anyone would have a clue about this place, he should."

"Q?" Ami asked, looking quizzically at Fred. "I'd have thought you'd be able to come up with any gadgets we'd need."

"Not _that_ Q," Fred laughed. "Our Q is a couatl, from the jungles of Kled. He's as close to an expert on dreamlands as any of my people know. Q isn't his real name, but it's what we call him, because no human can pronounce his real name. Edgar?"

Fred--no, Edgar, Rei had to remember that Edgar also lived in Fred's body--emitted a strange sound that was a mixture of reptilian and avian noises. Meanwhile, Ami was typing on her computer. She looked up from the display, confusion in her expression.

"I can't find a reference to Kled," she said.

"Not surprising," Fred said. "It's a region of the dreamland Q comes from. It's near the city of Hlanith, on the same continent as Dylath-Leen and Ulthar."

"Wait a minute," Rei said, recognizing two of those names. "Are you trying to say those places are real?"

"As real as this place," Fred said. "The problem with dreamlands is that they are as real as the belief of those who dream them. And that particular dreamland has had nearly a century of belief, from thousands of people--if not more--to sustain it. That's an awful lot of power, producing an awful lot of reality."

"So, if he comes from there," Rei asked slowly, considering the awful possibilities, "how much can we trust him?"

"As much as we can trust a cat," Fred said. "Q's one of the good guys. His people have been around for longer than that dreamland, by at least a couple thousand years, and they have always been protectors of humanity."

"_Are you talking about me?_" A voice entered Rei's mind. When she glanced around the table, she saw that everyone had heard it. Hovering above them, descending to coil around an empty chair, was a creature that looked like a gigantic rainbow boa with the most beautiful rainbow-colored wings she had ever seen on anything. Once it had settled on and around the chair it had chosen, the creature nudged Fred with its nose and emitted a mental snort of laughter.

"Yes, featherhead, we _are_ talking about you," Fred chuckled as he scratched between its eyes. "You should have told Sally you were close to shedding, silly. You know Quella's going to be worried about you until you're over it."

"_No worries,_" the creature said. "_So what kind of pickle have you gotten yourself into this time?_"

"Someone's created a dreamland, all for me," Fred grumbled. "And dragged these ladies into it, even though they weren't its intended target."

"_Are you sure about that? It's been my experience that if someone is dragged into a dreamland, it's never by accident. Even if we don't know why they're here, there is something about this place that they need to deal with, or they wouldn't be here._"

Fred pinched the bridge of his nose and groaned. It looked to Rei as if he very much wanted to bang his head on the table.

"Q?" Ami asked. "We know part of the reason we're here is because Skuld-sama took advantage of this dream to bring us here so I could meet Fred, in order to grant wishes that the each one of my friends made on my behalf."

Rei swallowed and shifted uncomfortably. That didn't help her guilt feelings any, being reminded that their presence here was due to the wishes she and the others had made, which had had nothing to do with Fred, despite her blaming him for their presence yesterday.

"_I see._" Q rustled his wings, dropping a few feathers as he did. Rei found it amazing that, even close to shedding, he looked so beautiful. If he looked this way now, what did he look like when he was at his peak? "_What can you tell me about this dreamland?_"

"So far," Ami started before Fred could speak, "we know that this dreamland is a copy of Fred's home world, except that the version of him in the dream is still married to the woman he was married to before he died, and he is the emperor of the planet."

"_Ouch,_" Q commented. "_Doubly a nightmare, then. It sounds like either someone really hates you, or they're trying to teach you a really hard lesson. Either way, it sucks to be you. All right, I'll see what I can find out. I take it you're staying here while you're in this dream?_"

"Yeah," Fred muttered. "At least I know _this_ place is sane."

Q let out a hiss, and his mental laughter was almost loud enough to be painful. "_When you think_ Herzwesten _is sane, I know you're in trouble. Hmm. Maybe I won't run off quite yet. I see Sally's brought me a treat._"

"Move your butt, scales," Sally teased as she pushed past Q's chair to set a tray down on the table. He poked her with the tip of his tail, and she swatted it playfully, then began distributing breakfast, including a whole piglet for Q.

"_I don't get no respect,_" Q grumbled, while laughing. "_No respect at all. And to think that your people used to worship my people as gods._"

"You're lucky I don't treat you like I treat some gods I know," Sally shot back with a grin. "But I don't like the smell of barbecued snake. Or the smell of burnt feathers."

"_See what I mean? No respect._" Q laughed.

"S-s-s-SNAKE!" Usagi screamed, from about three feet behind Rei's chair.

"_Snake? What? Where?_" Q asked, making a big production of raising his head and looking around as if searching for the cause of Usagi's scream. It didn't help much that he was still in the process of swallowing the piglet, so its hindquarters were hanging out of his mouth, held in place by a set of fangs that would have looked more natural on a rattlesnake. After making a show of looking around, he stopped and turned his head upside-down as he peered at Usagi and asked, "_Oh. Did you mean, me?_"

Makoto fell out of her chair, laughing. Rei had to bite her tongue to keep from joining her. Ami buried her face in Fred's chest, but Rei could see from the way her shoulders were shaking that she was laughing just as hard. Fred simply raised an eyebrow and asked, deadpan, "Have you considered trying for your school's opera club?"

"Buh...you can talk?" Usagi stared at Q in shock.

"_Something like that,_" Q answered. "_I'm afraid I can't reproduce the sounds of your human languages, but as long as you can receive my mental communication, it serves the same purpose. Please excuse me a moment._" With a final effort, he got the rest of the piglet down. "_There. Much better. I find that people don't pay nearly enough attention to what I'm trying to say if I'm still eating while talking._"

"Would someone please tell me what's going on?" Usagi sounded as if she were on the verge of hysterics. Over a snake, of all things! Rei couldn't decide whether to laugh or yell at her.

"Q's agreed to help us learn more about this dreamland," Fred said. "He's our resident dreamlands expert, so Sally suggested we consult with him. Q, since we haven't gotten around to it yet, the lady who just tried to pierce our ears is Neo-Queen Serenity, also known as Usagi. The lady who's rolling on the floor is Makoto. The one who's trying to decide whether she has any hearing left is Rei. The beautiful nymph in my arms is Ami. And the blonde coming toward us right now is Minako. They're all from the same world. In fact, they're all their world's equivalent of my Knights."

"_That explains why they're so familiar,_" Q said, with a faint sardonic tone. "_And they're the real deal, eh? Much more interesting than the dream versions I've run into over the last ten years._"

"Dream versions?" Rei asked, wondering as she did if she really wanted to know the answer.

"_Uh-huh._" Q rotated his head back upright and turned from Usagi to Rei. "_I've seen versions of you that range from fairy princesses to...what is that human term...oh yes, nymphomaniacs, that's it...in dreams from all over Fred's home world. It's fairly common for characters from popular fiction to end up in people's dreams, though. It's not so often that I run into real counterparts to fictional characters. It kind of figures there'd be a god involved._"

"I think Skuld might be a bit miffed if she heard you call her a god," Fred laughed.

"_God, goddess, whatever. You mammals all look the same to me._"

"And he says we don't give him any respect." Fred poked Q. "So, do you need anything special from us?"

"_Nah. I'll just poke around the way I usually do, and if I find anything interesting, I'll look you up. Do you know what the time ratio here is?_"

"Not yet," Fred said. "As of yesterday, Ambrosius said no time had passed back home, and he didn't know what time, if any, had passed in their world. That's one of the things we were going to ask him today."

"_That would be useful to know. If it's the same rate as my dreamland, it would be 168:1, which would give you a month or two here before anyone back in Laputa would start worrying about you. If the rate is greater, you'd have more time to work with._"

"Trust me," Fred grumbled. "Even a month would be too much, if not for who I'm spending it with." He looked down at Ami with the kind of adoration Rei usually saw only between Usagi and Mamoru. It was hard to reconcile that with the fear she recognized now, but then again, she had to admit that love could cut through almost any obstacles.

"Uh...," Minako said hesitantly, while staring at Q, "are you all having a conversation with..."

"_With me, yes,_" Q said, while uncoiling from his chair and rising into the air above the table. "_And I'm off. I'll let you know what I find._" With that, he faded from view.

"Would someone like to tell me what's going on?" Minako asked as she sank into a chair and reached for a honey bun."If I'd known you were going to have a meeting before I got down here..."

"It wasn't planned," Fred said. "Rei and Makoto were already here when Ami and I came down. Sally asked Q to stop in because he's our resident dreamlands expert."

"So that snake..."

"He's not just a snake," Rei said. "He's a couatl." She turned her head to look back at Usagi, who was still standing where she had been when she screamed. "And what about you, Usagi? Are you going to just stand there, or are you going to join us for breakfast?"

"I don't feel so good," Usagi groaned, but she did sit between Rei and Ami. Rei had to suppress a smile as she poured a cup of tea for Usagi and handed it to her.

"Here. This will help." As Usagi took a sip, Rei added, "Maybe now you won't drink so much, ne?"

"I don't understand," Usagi complained. "Isn't alcohol supposed to taste _bad_?"

"If all you're used to is sake, yes," Fred said. "I don't understand how _anyone_ can drink it."

"This is your idea of breakfast?" Ami asked, looking at her plate. Rei had to agree with her. It looked like there was steak and potatoes, and she wasn't sure what else, but it looked to her more like a farmer's lunch than anything you'd expect for breakfast.

"Yup," Fred answered with a grin as he began to eat. "This and coffee will keep me going for most of the day."

"So," Minako asked, while pouring herself some tea, "what do we have planned for today?"

"More questions for Ambrosius," Fred said, "waiting for the ID cards Carl is making, and scanning the local airwaves to see what more we can learn about this world. Anyone else have any ideas?"

"Breakfast," Usagi mumbled. Nobody seemed to have an answer for that, so they settled in to finish off what was on the table.

Ambrosius turned to Skuld, who continued to study the image in his scrying pool. "Are you sure this is necessary?"

"Millions of lives depend on it," Skuld said. She looked across the pool at him and shrugged. "At least this gives him a point of brightness in this horrible dream."

"What would you have done if this dream hadn't happened?"

"There's _always_ a way," Skuld laughed. "This just happens to be the way it worked out in this universe. I do have to admit, the easiest one was the universe that both of them lived in. I didn't have to do anything in that universe. Their daughter took care of it all herself."

"Now," Ambrosius growled, smiling, "I think I understand all the people who say I give them a headache."

"Aren't you just so lucky?" Skuld shot back with a laugh. She returned her attention to the pool. Seeing she wasn't inclined to talk, Ambrosius joined her.

"Rei?" Fred asked as he leaned back in his chair after the table was cleared and more coffee and tea delivered. He paused a moment, considering his question and how best to ask it. "Do you require the Great Fire for Seeing, or will any fire do?"

Rei jumped, apparently surprised that he was addressing her directly. She apparently didn't understand that he was able to bury his feelings - at least enough to do those things he _had_ to do. "I, uh, well, it's easier with the Great Fire, but if I have to, I can use another fire. The fireplace in my room should be enough. What do you need?"

"Anything you can pick up," Fred said, with a sigh of relief. "At the moment, I wouldn't even try to guess what might be important, so whatever you pick up is bound to mean something." He studied Minako, Makoto, and Usagi for a moment. He couldn't think of a thing they could do until Carl got back with those fake IDs. "Minako, Usagi, why don't the two of you get to know people around here? This place opens on to so many universes I can't count them all, so you're bound to meet some interesting people. Makoto, they're likely to need someone big and imposing with them, in case they meet someone who doesn't understand the idea of free women. What do you think?"

Makoto looked up and growled under her breath as she saw Usagi bump into what looked like a small giant. In a flash, she was out of her seat and at Usagi's side.

"There we go," Fred said. "Ambrosius doesn't allow any real violence, but still, there's enough excitement to keep them busy." He looked at Ami and asked, "Do you think you and Edgar can search out the stuff he picks up off the air, see what you can find that might be interesting? I'm going to do some net diving and see if there are any systems I can find that will give us useful information."

"We can do it," Ami said, pulling out her computer. "How can I get you if I need your attention?"

"Just tell Edgar," Fred said. "He knows how to send me a recall."

Ami smiled, leaned into Fred, and gently kissed him. "Be safe, love."

"You, too," Fred said, returning the kiss and holding Ami in a loving embrace.

Fred drifted in the net and shook his head, disappointed by how primitive it was. He had expected something more like the network back home, but this was like traveling through the internet the way it was back in the 80s in the US. He kept his actions to the minimum necessary for getting around, and constantly monitored the load on the nodes he traveled through, to make sure he didn't accidentally overload one and crash it.

Not only were the nodes absurdly underpowered, the network itself was lacking. He couldn't get any better than ten megabytes of transfer speed on the best links, and was stuck below one megabyte on most of the links. By the time he got anywhere interesting, he felt as if he had been swimming through tar the entire way. He couldn't believe that the subspace network he relied on so heavily back in his own world didn't seem to exist in this world, and all he had to work with was the old-fashioned wired network that had existed before the first of his children had Awakened. Once he got out again, he was going to have to ask Edgar if he had found _any_ traces of the subspace network that should have existed if his dream counterpart had achieved his level of computer advancement.

Fred studied the system he was in, and learned it was a system that held the data of an old DSS regional office, now controlled by the Imperial Guard. He began copying data, automatically re-routing his trace so that it went through the Wisconsin State Patrol headquarters in Madison. As he had expected, his copy operation tripped an alarm, and the system operators began tracing his entry route. He knew they couldn't get past the state system to find him, so they would waste a lot of time trying to find whoever in the State Patrol had invaded their system.

The copy operation took long enough that he was able to spawn a sub-process to continue it while he explored the lines out of that system, to see where in the Imperial network they went. Again as he expected, the system had been locked down as soon as the alarm went off, so all he was able to do was determine that it was connected to other regional systems, as well as sub-regional systems, such as the state and local police agencies that reported to the Imperial Guard. He made a note to come back after they were calmed down some, so he could check out the other systems it was connected to. Once his copy finished, he dropped out of the system and opened his eyes, back in Ambrosius' place.

Ami studied the videos Edgar had been capturing from the local television stations and shook her head with disgust. It looked so much like what she imagined television would have been in the Dark Kingdom that she felt faintly nauseous. All the programs praising the Empress, with a few here and there that mentioned the Emperor, almost as if he were an afterthought, reminded her of the way the followers of Beryl fawned over her. On top of that, the programs that didn't directly concern them were still little more than propaganda, like in that awful "Starship Troopers" movie from a few years ago, that had disgusted her by its theft of the name of a perfectly good book for the sake of spouting the producer's own twisted view of the world. She was close to calling Fred back, just to give her a way to escape the flow of garbage, when he opened his eyes beside her.

"You look like you just ate a bowl of natto," he said, while smiling. "What's up?"

"It's no wonder you think of this as a nightmare," she replied, leaning against him with a sigh. "I've been watching some of the TV shows Edgar's been capturing, and it's _awful!_ It's like the Dark Kingdom, without the youma."

"Amichan," Fred said as he stroked her cheek gently, "I'd go through _any_ nightmare if I knew you were waiting for me on the other side."

Ami sighed softly, love and fear mixing together as she thought of what they'd have to face, both to free him of this nightmare and to find their way home. She pressed into his hand and whispered, "I know it's impossible, but I wish we could have met without you having to face this."

"So do I, love. So do I." Fred leaned forward and kissed her gently, then asked, "How is everyone else doing?"

Ami looked around, embarrassed at having forgotten the others. OK, Usagi, Minako, and Makoto were over by the stage, apparently caught up in the band that was performing. The last she'd seen Rei, she had been heading for the stairs. Ami gestured at the three by the stage and said softly, "They look like they're doing OK. Rei was going upstairs when I saw her last. She...," Ami paused and thought of how to explain. "She seems to have taken my warning to heart. The look in her eyes when she was watching you before she left, it was as if she wanted to punish herself for yesterday."

"Well, that makes one of us," Fred sighed. "I don't want her to punish herself. I just want her to think before she leaps to conclusions. Of course, for someone as hot-tempered as she is, that may be punishment enough."

Ami laughed and poked Fred's chest gently. "You! I don't _dare_ tell her that, you know. She'd blow her stack!"

Fred grinned and nodded. "Mmmhmmm. Aren't I just so terrible? I do have good news for you, though. I looted the datastore at the regional Imperial Guard computer." He shook his head. "It's a MacManus, but it's one of the brain-dead models. As far as I can tell, none of this version's systems have ever Awakened. Either that or they've been put down as soon as they did. I hope it's the first. Nobody deserves to be killed as soon as they're born."

"How much of your special talents rely on them being alive?" Ami asked, thinking of what she'd seen Fred and Edgar do so far.

"The Network does, that's for sure. It takes living souls to create the subspace network we use." He hugged her as he thought some more. She smiled as she realized she could not only tell he was thinking by the look in his eyes, she could feel his thoughts, as if they were her own. "And if his version of Edgar isn't alive, he's not going to be able to use his Ravenfield as effectively as I can. I'm sure if we spend some time thinking about it, we can come up with more areas where the lack of living computers will handicap them."

Ami's communicator beeped. She pulled it out and answered. "Yes?"

"Ami? Is Fred with you?" Rei asked.

"Yes," she answered. "What is it?"

"Would you both come up to my room? I've seen some things in the fire that I need to talk with you about."

Ami looked at Fred, who nodded, while she felt his mental barriers slamming into place. _Damn. I've got to find some way that he can keep himself open to me, at least, when he's shielding like that._ "OK, Rei. We're coming up."

--

Disclaimer: If you recognize it, and it's not from Knights in Tarnished Armor, it's not mine. Sailor Moon is the proerty of Takeuchi Naoko, and the companies that published her work. Skuld belongs to Herself, and isn't likely to look kindly on anyone who claims to own Her. The cities of Hlanith, Dylath-Leen, and Ulthar, and the jungles of Kled, are from H.P. Lovecraft's Dreamlands. 

Author's note: I know it's taking a while on this, but after the last chapter, I had to take a break to mentally regroup.


End file.
